Near-threshold vibrational excitation of acetylene by positron impact

Abstract

We report vibrational excitation cross sections for C-C and C-H symmetric stretch modes of acetylene by positron impact. The contribution of these infrared inactive modes to the annihilation parameter is also addressed. The Feshbach projection operator approach was employed to vibrationally resolve e{sup +}-acetylene scattering phase shifts obtained with the Schwinger multichannel method. The present results point out a virtual state pole at the equilibrium geometry of acetylene that becomes a bound state as either bond is stretched, in qualitative agreement with previous calculations for small hydrocarbons. The vibrational couplings are stronger for the C-C mode, giving rise to a bound state pole within the Franck-Condon region of the vibrational ground state. These bound and virtual states give rise to sharp threshold structures (vibrational resonances) in both the vibrational excitation cross sections and the annihilation parameter (Z{sub eff}). We found fair agreement between the present calculations and previously reported e{sup +}-acetylene vibrational excitation cross sections.