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Test Of The Pluvinage Wave Function For The Helium Ground State, S. Jones, Joseph H. Macek, Don H. Madison

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

The accuracy of the Pluvinage wave function for the ground state of helium is investigated by considering a number of different physical processes including double ionization by photoabsorption, Compton scattering, and electron impact. In the high-energy limit of these processes, the accuracy of the initial ground state can be ascertained without reference to the final double-continuum state. In this limit, we find that a Hylleraas description is superior to the Pluvinage one. For intermediate energies, final-state correlation becomes important, so we employ a 3C description of the final state (the 3C wave function is the double-continuum analog of the Pluvinage …