Ab initio methods for electron-molecule collisions

This review concentrates on the recent advances in treating the electronic aspect of the electron-molecule interaction and leaves to other articles the description of the rotational and vibrational motions. Those methods which give the most complete treatment of the direct, exchange, and correlation effects are focused on. Such full treatments are generally necessary at energies below a few Rydbergs (≅ 60 eV). This choice unfortunately necessitates omission of those active and vital areas devoted to the development of model potentials and approximate scattering formulations. The ab initio and model approaches complement each other and are both extremely important to the full explication of the electron-scattering process. Due to the rapid developments of recent years, the approaches that provide the fullest treatment are concentrated on. 81 refs