Complete momentum balance in ionization of H2 by 75-keV-proton impact for varying projectile coherence

We report on a kinematically complete experiment on ionization of H2 by proton impact. While a significant impact of the projectile coherence properties on the scattering-angle dependence of double-differential cross sections (DDCSs), reported earlier, is confirmed by the present data, only weak coherence effects are found in the electron and recoil-ion momentum dependence of the DDCSs. This suggests that the phase angle in the interference term is determined primarily by the projectile momentum transfer rather than by the recoil-ion momentum. We therefore cannot rule out the possibility that the interference observed in our data is not primarily due to a two-center effect.