ELECTRON-IMPACT POLARIZATION AND CORRELATION-PROPERTIES OF THE INERT-GASES

For the heavier rare-gas targets, Ne, Ar, Kr, there is now a reasonabl e amount of experimental electron impact coherence parameter data avai lable for excitation of the lowest J = 1 states. Theoretical results f or those rare-gas targets, have been restricted to distorted-wave appr oximation (DWA) type theories. We present a systemization of the exper imental data and compare them with available theoretical results. In t he case of the heavy rare gases, we compare the experimental and theor etical data available for the three species, Ne, Ar, Kr, in order to i dentify trends. We compare the experimental data with results from ava ilable theories (mainly DWA type) and discuss the importance of spin-o rbit coupling effects and ''shell'' effects. We present our point-of-v iew as to the physical picture that is emerging from all collisional d ata, and conclude by recommending future experimental and theoretical activities that will, from our perspective, provide new insight into t he physics of these processes.