Calculation of e/sup -/ H scattering processes using hyperspherical coordinates

Thesis/Dissertation · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:7020771

Hood, D M

A method is presented for accurately solving the Schroedinger equation of the scattering of an electron from a hydrogen atom in three dimensions, which uses hyperspherical coordinates. The motivation for using this new technique is that previous methods - the coupled channel expansions using target atom eigenfunctions, polarization functions and pseudostates, and variational methods have all proven unsatisfactory. The coupled channel calculations tend to have difficulty obtaining convergence with respect to basis set size, and the variational method interjects spurious resonances. Previous applications of hyperspherical coordinates have used methods that, while adequate for computing the energy level of the sound state of H/sup -/, are not appropriate to full scattering calculations. Converged surface functions were obtained at a set of discrete values of the hyperradius, which acts as a parameter. The surface functions are further expanded in a basis set that involves 1-dimensional functions of the hyperspherical angle, which are obtained by a finite difference method. The surface functions were used to expand the scattering functions. The resulting coupled equations are solved numerically. The wave functions are obtained separately at each energy and are converged with respect to the number of basis functions used.

• Research Organization: California Inst. of Tech., Pasadena (USA)
• OSTI ID: 7020771
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640302* -- Atomic
Molecular & Chemical Physics-- Atomic & Molecular Properties & Theory
657002 -- Theoretical & Mathematical Physics-- Classical & Quantum Mechanics
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
ATOMS
COLLISIONS
DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
ELECTRON COLLISIONS
ELEMENTS
EQUATIONS
FUNCTIONS
HYDROGEN
NONMETALS
PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS
POLARIZATION
RESONANCE
SCATTERING
SCHROEDINGER EQUATION
WAVE EQUATIONS
WAVE FUNCTIONS