Lattice, time-dependent approach for electron-hydrogen scattering

A time-dependent approach for treating electron-hydrogen scattering is reported that utilizes a fully correlated two-electron wavefunction represented on a three-dimensional lattice using the basis-spline collocation method. The lattice, time-dependent approach obviates the need for consideration of the three-body Coulomb boundary conditions, avoids the use of severe approximations such as those of perturbation theory for slow collisions, and provides a relatively dense representation of the one- and two-electron continua. Probabilities for excitation and ionization are computed by projection onto lattice eigenstates of the H atom. Partial cross sections for excitation and ionization are obtained and compared with results of other theoretical methods for the 1S and 3S channels.