Exact relativistic plane-wave Born (RPWB) matrix elements of the Møller interaction are incorporated in the "analytic Born subtraction technique" and employed in the Relativistic Convergent Close-Coupling (RCCC) method. Application to the calculation of high-energy electron-impact excitation cross sections of highly charged hydrogenlike ions demonstrates the "Bethe rise", an effect that is manifest in Bethe's original 1932 work on relativistic high-energy, electron-impact excitation. The result

more »

... represents an improvement over Bethe's relativistic high-energy theory developed in the 1930's in that (i) both target and projectile electrons are represented relativistically with Dirac spinor wavefunctions and (ii) the dipole approximation plus additional assumptions are not employed in the RPWB scattering amplitude of the Møller interaction.