Ab initio study of vibrational excitation of HF by low energy electrons

Fixed-nuclei, static-exchange calculations have been performed to study the vibrational-rotational excitation of HF by electrons from threshold to 5 eV. Our calculated, R-dependent K-matrix elements in 2Σ+, 2Pi, and 2Δ symmetry are combined with exact point-dipole and laboratory-frame first-Born-approximation results for higher symmetries to obtain converged, integrated cross sections. The calculations show strong threshold peaks which are related to the dependence of the 2Σ+ K-matrix elements on internuclear distance at small scattering energies