Momentum-space calculation of electron-molecule scattering.

Abstract

The momentum-space calculation of electron-molecule elastic scattering is described and illustrated as the first step in a program of electron-molecule scattering that takes all reaction channels into account. The method is the analog for molecules of the integral-equation methods that have had essentially complete success for structurally simple atoms. Although scattering is a single-center problem in momentum space its multicentered nature in coordinate space results in the integral equations for different orbital angular momenta being coupled. There are no restrictions in principle on the nature of the target molecule. For illustrative purposes the static exchange calculation is supplemented by a phenomenological polarization potential that will be replaced by an ab initio optical potential and coupled electronic channels in the planned development of a general scattering method.