Effective potential theory of e--H2 rotational excitation

A recently developed 'effective potential' formalism is applied to the e--H2 elastic scattering and rotational excitation processes. The partial-wave analysis of the 'optical' and 'transition' potentials of the theory, relative to elastic and inelastic processes respectively, is developed. The first quantity enters into a (small) set of coupled integral equations, which are solved numerically by a non-iterative technique. The second quantity is used to evaluate a matrix element, directly related to the T-matrix of inelastic transitions. A comparison of the results shows good agreement with exact close-coupling calculations, particularly for inelastic processes, which are dominated by higher partial waves. (author)