Title: One-photon double ionization of helium: A heuristic formula for the cross section
Abstract: Without a formal derivation, we propose a formula for the total and single-differential cross sections in the problem of one-photon double ionization of an atom. The formula is benchmarked against accurate experimental data for the total cross section of helium. Furthermore, a direct comparison with ab initio calculations for the double ionization of Li${}^{+}$ suggests that the framework is valid for the entire helium isoelectronic sequence. To this end, we introduce a formula for the double ionization of lithium as well as for the triple ionization of lithium and beryllium.