Topical Review

Electron-scattering on molecular hydrogen: convergent close-coupling approach^⋆

¹ Curtin Institute for Computation and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia 6102, Australia
² Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA

^a e-mail: liam.scarlett@postgrad.curtin.edu.au

Received: 31 October 2019
Received in final form: 26 December 2019
Published online: 20 February 2020

Abstract

Calculations of electron-impact excitation cross sections for molecular hydrogen have been performed using spherical- and spheroidal-coordinate formulations of the molecular convergent close-coupling method. We present a comparison and find good agreement between the results of these two techniques performed within the fixed-nuclei approximation for excitation from the ground X ¹Σ_g⁺ (v = 0) state of H₂ to the B ¹Σ_u⁺ , C ¹Π_u, B′ ¹Σ_u⁺ , D ¹Π_u, E F ¹Σ_g⁺ , b ³Σ_u⁺ , c ³Π_u⁺ , a ³Σ_u⁺ , e ³Σ_u⁺ , h ³Σ_g⁺ , and d ³Π_u states. For the spheroidal-coordinate approach the adiabatic-nuclei method has been applied, allowing for a more reliable estimate of cross sections at near-threshold energies. Comparison of the adiabatic-nuclei cross sections with the corresponding fixed-nuclei cross sections is also presented.