STUDY OF ELECTRON-MOLECULE COLLISIONS VIA THE FINITE-ELEMENT METHOD AN R-MATRIX PROPAGATION TECHNIQUE - MODEL EXCHANGE

We have applied the finite-element method to electron-molecule collisions. All the calculations are done in the body frame within the fixed-nuclei approximation. A model potential, which is added to the static and polarization potential, has been used to represent the exchange effect. The method is applied to electron-H-2 scattering and the eigenphase sums and the cross sections obtained are in very good agreement with the corresponding results from the linear-algebraic approach. Finite-element calculations of the R matrix in the region where the static and exchange interactions are strong, however, has about one-half to one-fourth of the memory requirement of the linear-algebraic technique.