title: Ultrafast Molecular Three-Electron Auger Decay.
abstract: Three-electron Auger decay is an exotic and elusive process, in which two outer-shell electrons simultaneously refill an inner-shell double vacancy with emission of a single Auger electron. Such transitions are forbidden by the many-electron selection rules, normally making their decay lifetimes orders of magnitude longer than the few-femtosecond lifetimes of normal (two-electron) Auger decay. Here we present theoretical predictions and direct experimental evidence for a few-femtosecond three-electron Auger decay of a double inner-valence-hole state in CH_{3}F. Our analysis shows that in contrast to double core holes, double inner-valence vacancies in molecules can decay exclusively by this ultrafast three-electron Auger process, and we predict that this phenomenon occurs widely.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Gothenburg, Origovägen 6B, 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden.|Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box 516, 751 20 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Raimund
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Feifel
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Gothenburg, Origovägen 6B, 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden.|Department of Chemistry, Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory, Oxford University, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QZ, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: John H D
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Eland
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Gothenburg, Origovägen 6B, 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden.|Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box 516, 751 20 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Squibb
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box 516, 751 20 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Melanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mucke
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Gothenburg, Origovägen 6B, 412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden.|Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box 516, 751 20 Uppsala, Sweden.
authors.forename: Sergey
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zagorodskikh
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Stockholm University, AlbaNova University Center, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Linusson
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Chimica, Biologia e Biotecnologie, Via Elce di Sotto 8, 06123 Perugia, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tarantelli
authors.affiliation: Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Institute of Theoretical Physics, V Holešovičkách 2, 18000 Prague, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Přemysl
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kolorenč
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Imperial College London, Prince Consort Road, SW7 2AZ London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Vitali
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Averbukh