Date of Award
Summer 2011
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Chemistry
First Advisor
Schrader, David M.
Second Advisor
Babikov,Dmitri
Third Advisor
Brown, Benjamin
Abstract
There has been a large amount of work studying positron and positronium (Ps) binding to atoms. Twelve atoms (including Ps) are known to bind with a positron and 14 atoms won't. For Ps binding, 12 atoms are found to bind with Ps and 2 atoms do not. For both positron and Ps binding to atoms, we find that the known binding energy can be fitted to a simple expression involving several common physical properties. Positron binding energies can be fitted using the parameters of ionization potentials, polarizabilities, and the number of s electrons of the atoms; while Ps binding energies can be fitted using the covalent radii, the number of s electrons, and the product of ionization potentials and electron affinities. The fitted relationships are tested on the unbound atoms and bound atoms not involved in the fitting. Then these two best-fit equations are used to predict the binding energies of positron-atom and Ps-atom systems for all other unstudied atoms through Bi. The results are discussed and analyzed theoretically. The models and the results appear to be reliable.