Numerically solvable model for resonant collisions of electrons with diatomic molecules
Houfek, Karel; Rescigno, T. N.; McCurdy, C. W.
We describe a simple model for electron-molecule collisions that has one nuclear and one electronic degree of freedom and that can be solved to arbitrarily high precision, without making the Born-Oppenheimer approximation, by employing a combination of the exterior complex scaling method and a finite-element implementation of the discrete-variable representation. We compare exact cross sections for vibrational excitation and dissociative attachment with results obtained using the local complex potential approximation as commonly applied in the "boomerang" model, and suggest how this two-dimensional model can be used to test the underpinnings of contemporary nonlocal approximations to resonant collisions.