Electron collisions with H3+: Ion-pair formation

The formation of the ion pair H2++H- in electron recombination with H3+ is studied. The diabatic potentials and electronic couplings are extracted from ab initio electron scattering calculations as well as quantum chemistry calculations. In order to describe this reaction we include six coupled electronic states and propagate wave packets in two dimensions using the multiconfiguration time-dependent Hartree method. Also, the cross section for ion-pair formation in electron recombination with D3+ is calculated. The cross section for this isotopomer is found to be about a factor of 3 smaller than the cross section for H3+