Eur. Phys. J. D 29, 357-365 (2004)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2004-00046-x

Rotationally inelastic collisions of electrons with H₂ and N₂ molecules: converged space-frame calculations at low energies

Department of Chemistry and INFM, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, P.A. Moro 5, 00185 Roma, Italy

Corresponding author: ^a fa.gianturco@caspur.it

Received: 18 February 2003
Revised: 1 December 2003
Published online: 15 April 2004

Abstract

The quantum treatment of the collisional excitation of rotations in H₂ and N₂ gases as test molecules is carried out within a space-fixed frame of reference by solving the multichannel close-coupled equations using an approach newly developed in our group, i.e. the modified variable phase approximation (MVPA). The interaction potentials contain the static, exchange and correlation-polarisation contributions and are obtained via a local, multipolar expansion formulation from ab initio data. The results are compared with existing experiments and produce numerically converged rotationally inelastic cross-sections obtained from an exact molecular-frame treatment of the problem.