English

Highly correlated electronic bounding and spin effect: confirmation of an autodetaching state of O$^-$

Atomic Physics 2026-02-18 v1

Abstract

The existence of an auto-detaching state of O^- with a lifetime on the scale of a hundred nanoseconds is demonstrated both experimentally and theoretically. The O^- lifetime values are determined using two recently developed methods. The experimental approach is based on a derivation from measured electron-loss cross sections combined with time-of-flight spectrometry. For the theoretical approach, the continued Green's function within the formalism of Fano-Feshbach is applied. We present the measured lifetime value of 100±10 ns100 \pm 10 \text{ ns}. The calculated lifetime value is 75 ns, and is associated with the (2p3^33s2^2)4^4S state of O^-. We discuss how the existence of a 100-ns-lifetime oxygen metastable anion can impact the modeling of oxygen-containing systems.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.15284,
  title  = {Highly correlated electronic bounding and spin effect: confirmation of an autodetaching state of O$^-$},
  author = {Marcelo M. Sant'Anna and Aldo A. Martínes-Calderón and Ginette Jalbert and A. B. Rocha and Guillermo Hinojosa},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.15284},
  year   = {2026}
}