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High resolution, vibrationally resolved, near-edge x-ray absorption fine structure ͑NEXAFS͒ spectra at the C 1s and N 1s ionization thresholds of pyridine and deuterated d 5-pyridine in the gas phase have been recorded. The high resolution of 65 meV ͑150 meV͒ at the C s ͑N 1s͒ ionization thresholds reveals vibrational structures in the spectra. Detailed ab initio and density functional theory ͑DFT͒ calculations were performed to interpret the experimental spectra and to assign the observed peaks. In particular we focused on the previously unexplained intensity ratio for the two components of the C 1s→1* transition. For this transition the vibrational structure is included through a linear coupling model in the DFT calculations and leads to the experimentally observed ϳ2:3 intensity ratio between the two * components in the C 1s spectrum rather than the ϳ3:2 ratio obtained without vibrational effects. After inclusion of relaxation effects in the excited states, in addition to the vibrational effects, both theoretical methods yield almost perfect agreement with experiment.

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Lifetimes for K-shell vacancy states in atomic carbon have been determined by measurement of the natural linewidth of the 1s → 2p photoexcited states of C + ions. The K-shell vacancy states produced by photoionization of atomic carbon are identical to those produced by 1s → 2p photoexcitation of a C + ion: 1s2s 2 2p 2 2 D, 2 P, and 2 S autoionizing states occur in both cases. These vacancy states stabilize by emission of an electron to produce C 2+ ions. Measurements are reported for the lifetime of the 1s2s 2 2p 2 2 D, 2 P and 2 S autoionizing states of C + : 6.3 ± 0.9 fs, 11.2 ± 1.1 fs and 5.9 ± 1.3 fs respectively. Knowledge of such lifetimes is important for comparative studies of the lifetimes of Kshell vacancies in carbon-containing molecules, benchmarking theory, and interpreting satellite x-ray spectra from astrophysical sources such as x-ray binaries. Absolute cross sections were measured for both ground-state and metastable-state ions providing a stringent test of state-of-the-art theoretical calculations.Carbon is ubiquitous in nature and is the building block of life. This atom in its various stages of ionization has relatively few electrons, and is thus amenable to theoretical study. Lifetimes

Absolute cross sections for single and multiple ionization of Ne by fast (0.75–3.50 MeV) protons have been measured. The comparison with available theoretical calculations shows that the inclusion of the contribution from time-delayed post-collisional mechanisms is needed for a good description of the experimental results for double and triple ionization at high velocities.

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We report high-resolution C 1s near-edge x-ray-absorption fine-structure (NEXAFS) spectra of the C6-ring-containing molecules benzene (C6H6), 1,3- and 1,4-cyclohexadiene (C6H8), cyclohexene (C6H10), cyclohexane (C6H12), styrene (C8H8), and ethylbenzene (C8H10) which allow us to examine the gradual development of delocalization of the corresponding pi electron systems. Due to the high experimental resolution, vibrational progressions can be partly resolved in the spectra. The experimental spectra are compared with theoretical NEXAFS spectra obtained from density-functional theory calculations where electronic final-state relaxation is accounted for. The comparison yields very good agreement between theoretical spectra and experimental results. In all cases, the spectra can be described by excitations to pi*- and sigma*-type final-state orbitals with valence character, while final-state orbitals of Rydberg character make only minor contributions. The lowest C 1s-->1pi* excitation energy is found to agree in the (experimental and theoretical) spectra of all molecules except for 1,3-cyclohexadiene (C6H8) where an energy smaller by about 0.6 eV is obtained. The theoretical analysis can explain this result by different binding properties of this molecule compared to the others.

Absolute charge-state-correlated cross sections for projectile electron loss, electron capture, and target multiple ionization in collisions between C 3+ ions and noble gases have been measured for energies between 1.3 and 3.5 MeV. The data have been compared with other similar absolute cross sections existent in the literature for several projectiles. Calculations for the single-loss−multiple-ionization channel have been performed for the screening mode, using both an extended version of the classical-impulse free-collision model and the plane-wave Born approximation (PWBA), and for the antiscreening mode within the PWBA. The energy dependence of the average number of target active electrons which contribute to the antiscreening has been described by means of a simple function, which is "universal" for noble gases but, in principle, projectile dependent. A method has been developed to obtain the number of active target electrons for each subshell in the high-velocity regime, which presented physically reasonable results. Analyses of the dependences of the single-capture and transfer-ionization (SC and TI, respectively) processes on the projectile charge states showed that, for He, equally charged bare and dressed projectiles have very similar cross sections; the latter thus acting as structureless point charges. A behavior similar to that in the SC has been observed for the pure single ionization of He by projectiles with different charge states and of the other noble gases by singly charged projectiles. It has been shown that the q 2 dependence of the pure-single and total-ionization cross sections, predicted by first-order models, is only valid for high-collision velocities. For slower collisions, the electron capture process becomes more relevant and competes with the ionization channel, a feature which grows in importance as the projectile charge state increases.