Laser modification of the exchange scattering in electron-atom collisions

Abstract

It is suggested that in elementary atomic processes involving identical particles the presence of a strong external perturbation reduces the importance of the exchange effects if identical particles respond to the external field in different ways. The case of elastic electron-hydrogen collisions in a laser field is considered as an example. The laser field is taken to consist of: (i) a single mode, (ii) a large number of uncorrelated modes (chaotic field).