Influence of rotating electron wave functions on l -shell ionization and alignment

In adiabatic ion-atom collisions, the target electron distribution will follow the rotation of the internuclear axis resulting in a change of the subshell ionization probabilities as well as of the alignment tensor as compared with the case of frozen electron wave functions. In the present work we compare SCA calculations based on frozen and rotating relativistic electron wave functions with experimental l-subshell probabilities and l3-subshell differential alignment measured by Dorner et al. for 1 MeV protons on Samarium. In this case, where the intrashell couplings play a minor role, the agreement between calculations and experiment is significantly improved assuming a partial rotation of the target electron distribution during the collision, possibly depending on substate and impact parameter.