Confined variational calculations of low-energy electron-helium scattering

Abstract

The $S\text{\ensuremath{-}},$ $P\text{\ensuremath{-}},$ and $D\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{wave}$ elastic scattering of electrons by atomic helium with the scattering energy between 0.136 and $16.463\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{eV}$ is studied using the confined variational method. Our calculated phase shifts improve the best published results by at least one order of magnitude. The finite nuclear mass effect on the $S$-wave phase shift at very low scattering energy between 0.022 and $0.067\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{eV}$ is investigated, and the accurate $S$-wave scattering length is determined to be $1.1723{a}_{0}$, where ${a}_{0}$ is the Bohr radius. The results reported here can serve as a benchmark for other theoretical and experimental studies.