Triple differential cross sections in energy-sharing symmetric geometry for gold and uranium at relativistic impact energies

We report the results of fully relativistic distorted-wave calculations for (e, 2e) collisions at high energies on gold and uranium targets in a coplanar symmetric geometry. The results for gold are in excellent agreement with available absolute experimental data. We also observe a peak in the triple differential cross section at large angles which may be interpreted in terms of a multiple scattering mechanism. In the present case of large impact energies, the ratio of the large angle to the binary peak is several orders of magnitude larger than that previously observed at non-relativistic energies. Our calculations indicate that this peak should be accessible to experiment. We propose a new geometrical arrangement for experiments which we believe offers distinct advantages in the study of distortion effects in relativistic (e, 2e) processes. (Author)