Electron scattering by complex atoms

Abstract

A theory of electron scattering by complex atoms is developed in which the target atomic eigenstates and pseudostates are written as linear sums of configurations and the incident electron wave function is expanded in terms of orbitals which satisfy logarithmic boundary conditions on the surface of a sphere. The radius of the sphere is chosen so that exchange between the scattered and atomic electrons is only important within the sphere but full allowance must be made for the long range atomic potentials which exist outside of the sphere. Both the bound and the continuum calculations involve a diagonalization of the Hamiltonian in the appropriate basis and these calculations are arranged so that they use the same analytic procedures and computer codes. Finally, the construction of the S-matrix and the cross section matrix is discussed.