Metamorphosis of Positronium Moving Across a Magnetic Field

Abstract

Positronium spectrum and lifetimes are known with a high precision. The situation is different for positronium moving across a magnetic field. The total momentum does not commute with the Hamiltonian and is replaced by conserved pseudomomentum. The internal dynamics is not separated from the motion of the system as a whole. The Coulomb potential well is distorted and a wide outer potential well is created. We analytically determine the energy spectrum for a broad range of the magnetic field and pseudomomentum values. We locate the region of these parameters for which the ground state resides in the outer well. The results may play a role in the supression of pulsars radio emission (polar cap problem).