Theoretical treatment of inelastic thermal He+ + Hg collisions

The production of excited mercury ions in thermal He+ + Hg collisions is studied theoretically. The adiabatic potentials and the nonadiabatic radial couplings are calculated within the multielectron pseudopotential method. The coupled equations for the nuclear motion are solved fully quantum mechanically in a diabatic representation. The partial transition probabilities, the incoming and outgoing currents, the partial cross sections and the partial rate constants are determined in the range of interest and compared with the available experimental data. It is found that the total rate constant is mainly determined by the partial rate constant for excitation of the Hg+ (7p2P1/2) state. (author)