skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Ab initio calculations of low-energy electron scattering by HCN molecules

Journal Article · · Phys. Rev. A; (United States)

We report results for vibrationally elastic scattering over the energy range 0.0006--11.6 eV. The interaction potential is composed of a near-Hartree-Fock static term plus a parameter-free model of the correlation-polarization potential. The exchange interaction is included exactly through a separable expansion. Results with a model-exchange potential (free-electron-gas plus orthogonalization) are also reported. A resonance appears in Pi symmetry near 2.7 eV (width 1.9 eV) that may be the same feature observed in several experiments. In the model-exchange calculation the Pi resonance is shifted toward higher energy (3.8 eV, width 2.4 eV). The ..sigma.. symmetry was also found to be very sensitive to the treatment of exchange and to the effect of polarization. Differential and rotational excitation cross sections are evaluated in the multipole-extracted adiabatic-nuclei approximation. Results are compared with the available experimental and theoretical data.

Research Organization:
Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, University of Colorado and National Bureau of Standards, Boulder, Colorado 80309
OSTI ID:
5671051
Journal Information:
Phys. Rev. A; (United States), Vol. 32:1
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English