Ab initio study of the resonant electron attachment to the F2 molecule

Dissociative attachment to and vibrational excitation of diatomic molecules by electron impact is discussed within the projection operator approach. The present method lifts the assumption of separability of the discrete-continuum coupling term Vdε(R), i.e., it is no longer required to write it as a product of a function depending on coordinate R and energy ε separately. The method is applied to the Σu2 resonant dissociative electron attachment to and vibrational electron excitation of the F2 molecule. The required ab initio data have been computed using a recently developed algorithm. This algorithm is based on the Feshbach–Fano partitioning technique and the R-matrix method (FFR). The FFR method is discussed in the context of this particular application.