Theoretical study of excitation of the low-lying electronic states of water by electron impact

We report the results of ab initio calculations for excitation of the (a) over tilde B-3(1), (A) over tilde B-1(1), (b) over tilde (3)A(1), (B) over tilde (1)A(1), 1 (3)A(2), and 1 (1)A(2) states of water by low energy electron impact. The calculations are carried out in an eight-channel close-coupling approximation using the complex Kohn variational method. Particular attention is paid to the elimination of pseudoresonances that can occur when correlated target states are employed. Differential and integral cross sections are reported and compared with the most recent experimental and theoretical results.