Paper detail

Formal calculation of exchange effects on confined positronium

Positronium atoms (Ps) are widely used as a probe to characterize voids or vacancies in non-metallic materials, where Ps annihilation lifetime is strongly modified by pickoff, depending on the size of the trapping cavity and on the appropriate outer electron density. The connection between these material characteristics and Ps annihilation lifetimes is usually based on models that do not consider the requirements of full electron indistinguishability, which must be taken into account for a correct description of pickoff annihilation processes. In this report we provide a formal theoretical framework in which exchange effects between Ps and surrounding electrons are introduced in a natural way, giving a clear and versatile picture of the various contributions to the Ps pickoff annihilation. Moreover, our results provide a simple explanation of the lowering of the contact density (the Ps-electron density at the positron position) as a direct consequence of the electrons indistinguishability, at variance with previous interpretation based on spatial deformations of Ps wavefunction. Calculations are performed within the "symmetry adapted perturbation theory" approach, and the results are compared with experimental data on Ps lifetimes of some polymers and molecular solids. Finally, introducing suitable approximations, we also recover early modeling and give a simple interpretation of Ps properties in subnanometric voids.