Inner-shell excitation in heteronuclear collisions. III. A scaling law for differential and total cross sections for K-shell excitation

For pt.II see ibid., vol.8, no.11, p.1909 (1975). A law is derived which allows universal curves to be given for excitation via 2p sigma -2p pi coupling in ion-atom collisions. The scaling law is tested by comparison with ab initio calculations using both Hartree-Fock and hydrogenic molecular orbitals, and with experiment.