Ro-vibrational excitation of HCl by electron impact

Ab initio calculations of cross sections for simultaneous rotational and vibrational excitation of HCl by low-energy electrons have been made in the multipole-extracted adiabatic-nuclei approximation. These calculations employed a free-electron-gas model of the exchange interaction, and represent the first application of a new parameter-free model of the correlation-polarization interaction to vibrational excitation. The cross sections increase by an order of magnitude with the inclusion of this interaction, which is much more important for vibrationally inelastic than elastic collisions. 22 references