An approach for considering ionization of light atoms by relativistic projectiles generating strong electromagnetic fields

We propose an approach to treat ionization of light atoms in relativistic collisions with highly charged ions, where the electromagnetic field generated by the ions can be very strong. The approach is based on the observation that, for a collision with a certain momentum transfer, either the relativistic effects, connected with the collision velocity approaching the speed of light, or the higher-order terms in the corresponding Born series in the projectile–target interaction can be of importance for the ionization process. The approach consists of dividing all collisions into those with 'small' and 'large' momentum transfers, which are described by (the first order of) the relativistic Born and the Glauber approximations, respectively. The approach is applied to describe helium single ionization by 1 GeV u −1 U 92+ projectiles.