Cross sections for elastic electron scattering by benzene at low and intermediate energies

We present experimental and theoretical differential cross sections for elastic electron scattering from benzene. The present experimental results are obtained at incident electron energies ranging from 1 to 50 eV and for scattering angles from 10 degrees to 130 degrees. The experimental measurements are compared to available results from 1 to 10 eV and to theoretical results from 10 to 50 eV, both based on the Schwinger multichannel (SMC) method. Different electron scattering calculations are carried out by employing varied basis sets and multichannel coupling schemes. This allows us to (i) obtain relatively converged cross sections with respect to the inclusion of Rydberg excited states, (ii) observe significant variations in the forward scattering as a function of the multichannel coupling scheme, and (iii) explore possible effects stemming from states lying above the ionization threshold. Overall, the agreement between experiments and models is found to be very good to excellent. The remaining discrepancies point out areas in which the SMC method should be improved.