(1) Laboratoire Kastler-Brossel, École Normale Supérieure et Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Case 74, 4 place Jussieu, 75252 Paris Cedex 05, France
Abstract:
A framework for analyzing the Doppler broadening of the X-ray lines in pionic hydrogen is proposed. It is shown that the kinetic energy distributions at the instant of the (n = 2-4) radiative transitions are related to each other. In order to establish the connection, the collisional processes for pionic hydrogen scattering from hydrogen atoms and molecules have been calculated in different models. The proposed method can be used to determine reliably the strong interaction width of the ground state of pionic hydrogen from the X-ray line profiles measured recently at the Paul-Scherrer-Institut.Received: 6 August 2004, Published online: 28 September 2004PACS: 34.50.-s Scattering of atoms and molecules - 36.10.Gv Mesonic atoms and molecules, hyperonic atoms and molecules