Kinetics of ions in a neutral gas upon abrupt application of an electric field. I. CEM model

A new method for calculating matrix elements of the collision integral is used for solving problems of the mobility of ions against the background of atoms and for constructing the distribution functions for ions upon an abrupt application of an electric field. It is shown how the stationary distribution function can be constructed using the nonstationary moments method in the case when the stationary moments method is completely inapplicable. The solution to the nonstationary problem for the CEM model corresponding to resonant charge exchange with a constant collision frequency, which is constructed analytically, is used for analyzing the limits of applicability of the nonstationary moments method.