Molecular Physics of Elementary Processes Relevant to Hypersonics: Electron-Molecule Collisions

Non-resonant, electron-impact, vibro-electronic excitation cross sections, involving vibrationally excited N 2 molecules, to the mixed valence-Rydberg b,c,o 1 u and b , c , e 1 u + singlet states are presented. These cross sections are calculated using the so-called similarity approach, accounting for the vibronic coupling among excited states, and compared with the experiments and different theoretical calculations.