Resonance studies using the contour deformation method in the complex momentum plane

Abstract

A contour deformation method (CDM) in the complex momentum plane has been successfully extended and implemented to probe resonances in atomic and molecular systems. Specifically, solution of the Schrödinger equation is performed in momentum space with momentum deformed on a contour in the complex plane. The bound, resonant, and complex continuum states could be directly revealed from the eigenvalues of the Schrödinger equation in the complex momentum plane. The calculations of shape resonances in electron scattering with Na+ in Debye plasmas (one channel), and in the charge transfer process H−(1s2)+Li(1s22s) (12Σ+) →H(1s)+Li−(1s22s2) (22Σ+) (coupled channels) are given as illustrative examples. It is shown that calculated results from CDM agree very well with those extracted from the eigenphase sum of scattering theories. The effectiveness of CDM is also demonstrated by comparing its results with those obtained by the complex rotation scaling and exterior complex scaling methods. The convergence of CDM results can be obtained by increasing the momentum integration region and the number of integration points. The studied examples demonstrate that CDM could be a powerful tool for studies of resonances in complex atomic and molecular systems.