On excitation and loss of an electron by incident ions in relativistic collisions with atoms

The excitation and loss of an electron by ions in relativistic collisions with atoms are studied in first-order perturbation theory. General expressions are obtained for the cross sections for the excitation and loss of an electron. In the limit of nonrelativistic collision velocities these expressions pass into the well-known nonrelativistic results. It is shown that, in contradistinction to the nonrelativistic collisions, in ultrarelativistic collisions the screening of the nucleus of the target atom by the atomic electrons is very important for excitation and loss of an electron by ions even for collisions of heavy ions with light atoms. Our computational results for the cross section for electron loss are in good agreement with existing experimental data.