Spin-orbit and interference asymmetries in elastic scattering of electrons from heavy one-electron atoms

Two asymmetries in the differential cross section for elastic scattering of electrons from one-electron atoms are discussed. Numerical results for the standard left-right asymmetry (electrons polarised, atoms unpolarised) and the interference asymmetry (electrons unpolarised, atoms polarised) are presented for caesium and thallium targets. For electron-thallium scattering, it is found that the former left-right asymmetry is predominantly due to spin-nonconserving processes in the electron-core interaction, even for very low scattering energies. This result explains the relatively small importance of the fine-structure effect (based on exchange between the continuum and the target electrons) for this particular collision system.