Swelling of positronium confined in a small cavity

PLoS One. 2014 Oct 14;9(10):e109937. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0109937. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

The electron density at the positron (contact density) in the ground state positronium (Ps) formed in condensed matter is generally found to be lower than in vacuum. This is usually attributed to microscopic electric fields which polarize Ps, by acting on the two particles of the atom. In this paper we quantitatively investigate an opposite effect. It is due to the confinement of Ps in small cavities existing in the host solid (e.g. free volume in polymers), which increases the contact density. Although this phenomenon is greater, the smaller is the size of the cavity, Ps polarization seems to play anyway a predominant role.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Electrons*
  • Models, Chemical
  • Polymers / chemistry*
  • Quantum Theory
  • Vacuum

Substances

  • Polymers

Grants and funding

The authors have no support or funding to report.