Positronium Binding to Metal Surfaces.

Available from UMI in association with The British Library. Positron binding to a metal surface is studied. The metal is described using the Hydrodynamic model. The Hamiltonian used differs from those used previously by the inclusion of a single, distinguishable electron. Thus the system can naturally describe a Positronium-like composite. This allows investigations of Positronium interacting with a metal which are new to the Hydrodynamic model. The surface attractive forces are derived from the Van der Waals potential which occurs naturally in this model. A variational calculation of a Positronium surface state is presented. This predicts surface bound states with binding energies of the correct order of magnitude. These states are stable against Positronium emission, in contract to earlier calculations. It is concluded the Positronium channel cannot be ignored in Positron surface calculations. The screening properties and dipole moment of the model are also investigated.