A systematic treatment is presented of near-threshold electron-atom scattering based on a variational principle. Results obtained here extend the modified effective-range theory derived some time ago (in which long-range polarization forces are taken into account) by providing a prescription, based on a minimum principle, for calculating the effective-range parameters. With the aid of perturbation-theory methods introduced recently for obtaining asymptotic solutions of the wave equation for scattering by a superposition of long-range power-law potentials [see M. J. Cavagnero, Phys. Rev. A 50, 2841 (1994)], higher-order corrections to the modified effective-range expansion in powers of the polarizability parameters are readily obtained. Explicit examples are provided. The theory is developed for both single-channel and multichannel scattering.
The interaction between atoms behaves as $\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\alpha}{/r}^{n}$ at large distances and, owing to the large reduced mass \ensuremath{\mu} of the collision pair, allows a semiclassical treatment within the potential well. As a result, the low-energy scattering is governed by two large parameters: the asymptotic parameter $\ensuremath{\gamma}=\sqrt{2\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\alpha}}/\ensuremath{\Elzxh}\ensuremath{\gg}{a}_{0}^{(n\ensuremath{-}2)/2}$ (
a0 is the Bohr radius) and the semiclassical zero-energy phase $\ensuremath{\Phi}\ensuremath{\gg}1.$ In our previous work [Phys. Rev. A 48, 546 (1993)] we obtained an analytical expression for the scattering length
a, which showed that it has 75% preference for positive values for
n=6, characteristic of collisions between ground-state neutral atoms. In this paper we calculate the effective range and show that it is a function of
a, ${r}_{e}{=F}_{n}\ensuremath{-}{G}_{n}{/a+H}_{n}{/a}^{2},$ where
Fn, Gn, and
Hn depend only on \ensuremath{\gamma}. Thus, we know the
s-phase shift at low momenta $k\ensuremath{\ll}{\ensuremath{\gamma}}^{\ensuremath{-}2/(n\ensuremath{-}2)}$ from the expansion $k\mathrm{cot}{\ensuremath{\delta}}_{0}\ensuremath{\simeq}\ensuremath{-}1/a+\frac{1}{2}{r}_{e}{k}^{2}.$ At $k\ensuremath{\gg}{\ensuremath{\gamma}}^{\ensuremath{-}2/(n\ensuremath{-}2)}$ the phase shift is obtained semiclassically as ${\ensuremath{\delta}}_{0}=\ensuremath{\Phi}+\ensuremath{\pi}/4\ensuremath{-}{I}_{n}{\ensuremath{\gamma}}^{2/n}{k}^{(n\ensuremath{-}2)/n},$ where ${I}_{n}=[n/(n\ensuremath{-}2)]\ensuremath{\Gamma}((n\ensuremath{-}1)/n)\ensuremath{\Gamma}((n+2)/2n)/\sqrt{\ensuremath{\pi}}.$ Therefore, \ensuremath{\gamma} and \ensuremath{\Phi} determine the
s-wave atomic scattering in a wide range of momenta, as well as the positions of upper bound states of the diatomic molecule.
Accurate scattering lengths and effective ranges for hydrogen atomic collisions are determined from effective range theory. The precise ab initio b3Σ+u potential energy curve values of H2 calculated by Kolos and Wolniewicz and C6, C8, C10 long-range expansion coefficients are used in obtaining accurate representation of the two-body interaction potential. The s-wave scattering length obtained for this potential (A =1/33455 ao) is used to calculate the zero temperature energy as a function of density of electron spin-polarized ("spin-aligned") atomic hydrogen (H+) using previous many-body perturbation theory results for bosons. Neglecting small potential shape dependent terms, one obtains E/N (energy per particle ) as a function of density, which may be compared with similar results obtained from Monte-Carlo or variational calculations. The scattering lengths and effective ranges for the other hydrogen isotopic systems are also presented. It is shown that the first bound state for the b3Σ+u potential (within the Born-Oppenheimer approximation) only exists for a hypothetical isotopic species with mass larger than a value m = 3.258176 g/mole (where the scattering length becomes infinite). In terms of the quantum parameter, η ≡ [MATH]2/ (2µεσ2), two-body binding occurs in the b3Σ+u potential only for η < 0.17094. The second order liquid-to-gas transition (corresponding to the onset of infinite-body binding) occurs at the accurately determined critical value of the quantum parameter ηCB = 0.43891. This corresponds to zero scattering length.
The parameters for
S-wave elastic scattering of near-zero-energy electrons and positrons by
H2 molecules are calculated using the stabilization method with explicitly correlated Gaussians. The confined variational method is applied to optimize the Gaussians to describe the short-range interaction of incident ${e}^{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}$ with
H2 in the fixed-nuclei approximation. For
e+-
H2 scattering the scattering length of previous work [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 223202 (2009)] is substantially improved. More importantly, for ${e}^{\ensuremath{-}}$-
H2 scattering, from first principles, the scattering length is computed as a function of the internuclear distance. In the case that the two nuclei are at the equilibrium distance the results are in a good agreement with values derived from fitting experimental total and diffusion cross sections to the modified effective range theory.
Abstract More than 65 years ago, Jost and Kohn (1952 Phys. Rev. 87 , 977) derived an explicit expression for a class of short-range model potentials from a given effective range expansion with the s -wave scattering length a s being negative. For a s > 0, they calculated another class of short-range model potentials (Jost and Kohn 1953 Dan. Mat. Fys. Medd 27 , no. 9) using a method based on an adaptation from Gel’fand−Levitan theory (Gel’fand and Levitan 1951 Dokl. Akad. Nauk. USSR 77 , 557-60) of inverse scattering. We here revisit the methods of Jost and Kohn in order to explore the possibility of modeling resonant finite-range interactions at low energy. We show that the Jost−Kohn potentials can account for zero-energy resonances. The s -wave phase shift for positive scattering length is expressed in an analytical form as a function of the binding energy of a bound state. We show that, for small binding energy, both the scattering length and the effective range are strongly influenced by the binding energy; below a critical binding energy the effective range becomes negative provided the scattering length is large. As a consistency check we carry out some simple calculations to show that Jost−Kohn potentials can reproduce the standard results of contact interaction in the limit of the effective range going to zero.
We describe a method for evaluating analytical long-range contributions to scattering lengths for some potentials used in atomic physics. We assume that an interaction potential between colliding particles consists of two parts. The form of a short-range component, vanishing beyond some distance from the origin (a core radius), need not be given. Instead, we assume that a set of short-range scattering lengths due to that part of the interaction is known. A long-range tail of the potential is chosen to be an inverse power potential, a superposition of two inverse power potentials with suitably chosen exponents or the Lent potential. For these three classes of long-range interactions a radial Schrodinger equation at zero energy may be solved analytically with solutions expressed in terms of the Bessel, Whittaker and Legendre functions, respectively. We utilize this fact and derive exact analytical formulae for the scattering lengths. The expressions depend on the short-range scattering lengths, the core radius and parameters characterizing the long-range part of the interaction. Cases when the long-range potential (or its part) may be treated as a perturbation are also discussed and formulae for scattering lengths linear in strengths of the perturbing potentials are given. It is shown that for some combination of the orbital angular momentum quantum number and an exponent of the leading term of the potential the derived formulae, exact or approximate, take very simple forms and contain only polynomial and trigonometric functions. The expressions obtained in this paper are applicable to scattering of charged particles by neutral targets and to collisions between neutrals. The results are illustrated by accelerating convergence of scattering lengths computed for e - -Xe and Cs-Cs systems.