Thomas double scattering in electron capture from oriented molecular hydrogen

Electron capture from hydrogen molecules by protons is treated using the second-order Born approximation. Differential cross sections in an adiabatic-nuclei approximation for specific molecular orientations and for an equally weighted averaging over all orientations are presented for incident energies of 2.5 and 10 MeV. A Hartree-Fock molecular wave function and linearized-propagator approximation are employed to evaluate the amplitude. An approximate factoring of the amplitude into double scattering and diffraction (arising from the two target nuclei) components is shown to give a poor description of high-velocity molecular capture.