Rotational rainbow structures in collisions of electrons with highly symmetric polyatomic molecules

Abstract

Following the studies of diatomic and highly symmetric planar molecules in collision-induced rotational excitation (discussed in a spectator model) an extension to highly symmetric spatial targets is developed. For the calculated cases all molecular atoms are treated as equivalent (with the liberty of a different atom at the centre of mass). A compact closed-form expression for the state-to-state differential cross sections is derived. Selection rules and rotational rainbow structures are discussed.