Inelastic low-energy collisions of electrons with HeH${}^{+}$: rovibrational excitation and dissociative recombination

Abstract

Inelastic low-energy (0--1 eV) collisions of electrons with HeH${}^{+}$ cations are treated theoretically, with a focus on the rovibrational excitation and dissociative recombination (DR) channels. In an application of {\it ab initio} multichannel quantum defect theory (MQDT), the description of both processes is based on the Born-Oppenheimer quantum defects. The quantum defects were determined using the R-matrix approach in two different frames of reference: the center-of-charge and the center-of-mass frames. The results obtained in the two reference systems, after implementing the Fano-Jungen style rovibrational frame-transformation technique, shows differences in the rate of convergence for these two different frames of reference. We find good agreement with the available theoretically predicted rotationally inelastic thermal rate coefficients. Our computed DR rate also agrees well with available experimental results. Moreover, several computational experiments shed light on the role of rotational and vibrational excitations in the indirect DR mechanism that governs the low energy HeH${}^{+}$ dissociation process. While the rotational excitation is several orders of magnitude more probable process at the studied collision energies, the closed-channel resonances described by the high-n, rotationally excited neutral molecules of HeH contribute very little to the dissociation probability. But the situation is very different for resonances defined by the high-n, vibrationally excited HeH molecules, which are found to dissociate with approximately 90% probability.

References in corpus (5)

• The Cryogenic Storage Ring CSR
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• Electron-impact excitation of diatomic hydride cations I: HeH${}^{+}$, CH${}^{+}$, ArH${}^{+}$
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• ab initio frame transformation calculations of direct and indirect dissociative recombination rates of HeH+ + e-

Cited by in corpus (11)

• First astrophysical detection of the helium hydride ion (HeH${}^{+}$)
• Detection of vibrational emissions from the helium hydride ion (HeH${}^{+}$) in the planetary nebula NGC 7027
• Dissociative recombination of cold HeH${}^{+}$ ions
• Electron-impact excitation of diatomic hydride cations II: OH${}^{+}$ and SH${}^{+}$
• Thermal and Resonant Emission of Dark Ages Halos in the Rotational Lines of HeH${}^{+}$
• Unified treatment of resonant and non-resonant mechanisms in dissociative recombination: benchmark study of CH${}^{+}$
• On the validity of the Born-Oppenheimer approximation in the indirect dissociative recombination process
• Energy-dependent frame transformation theory for dissociative recombination
• Dissociative recombination by frame transformation to Siegert pseudostates: A~comparison with a numerically solvable model
• Fate and detectability of rare gas hydride ions in nova ejecta: A case study with nova templates
• Chemistry and ro-vibrational excitation of HeH${}^{+}$ in the Planetary Nebula NGC 7027