Direct numerical approach to electron-hydrogen scattering. II. L>0

The direct numerical approach using a finite-difference propagation algorithm that we developed for electron-hydrogen scattering for total angular momentum L=0 [Y.D. Wang and J. Callaway, Phys. Rev. A 48, 2058 (1993)] is generalized to arbitrary L. This algorithm can treat the full Coulomb interaction of the two electrons. Since solutions are propagated outward to the asymptotic region, the propagation scheme is effective and suitable for extracting scattering quantities such as the S-matrix and K-matrix. The present algorithm is also attractive for its handling of large data arrays, which is a key limit to the direct numerical solution of partial differential equations in general. We applied this method to calculate phase shifts and resonances below the n=2 threshold, elastic and inelastic scattering cross sections at energies between the n=2 and n=3 thresholds. Effects of long-range channel coupling were investigated. Detailed comparisons with other calculations are given