Electron stripping cross-sections for fast, low charge state uranium ions

Cross-sections for projectile electron loss for U10+ and U28+ colliding with H2, N2, and Ar were calculated using the n-body classical trajectory Monte-Carlo method. The calculations include electrons on both nuclear centers and all electron–electron and electron–nuclear interactions between centers. Multiple ionization is inherently included in these many-electron calculations. Overall, except for the H2 target where the projectile stripping is overestimated by a factor of two, the calculated cross-sections are in reasonable accord with available data and the recent beam lifetime measurements from GSI-Darmstadt. For energies less than 100 MeV/u, the N2 and Ar cross-sections do not scale as E−1.0 as predicted by one-electron theories.