  Electron-ion recombination of completely stripped Bi83+ was investigated at
the Experimental Storage Ring (ESR) of the GSI in Darmstadt. It was the first
experiment of this kind with a bare ion heavier than argon. Absolute
recombination rate coefficients have been measured for relative energies
between ions and electrons from 0 up to about 125 eV. In the energy range from
15 meV to 125 eV a very good agreement is found between the experimental result
and theory for radiative recombination (RR). However, below 15 meV the
experimental rate increasingly exceeds the RR calculation and at Erel = 0 eV it
is a factor of 5.2 above the expected value. For further investigation of this
enhancement phenomenon the electron density in the interaction region was set
to 1.6E6/cm3, 3.2E6/cm3 and 4.7E6/cm3. This variation had no significant
influence on the recombination rate. An additional variation of the magnetic
guiding field of the electrons from 70 mT to 150 mT in steps of 1 mT resulted
in periodic oscillations of the rate which are accompanied by considerable
changes of the transverse electron temperature.
