The application of variational methods to atomic scattering problems III. The elastic scattering of electrons by helium atoms

Abstract

The variational method of Hulthèn has been applied to the elastic scattering of slow electrons by helium atoms, the effect of exchange being taken into account in calculating the zero-order phase shift. Satisfactory agreement has been obtained with the results given by numerical integration of the integro-differential equation determining the scattering when the total wave function is taken to be completely antisymmetric. Even at very low electron energies (0·04 eV) the agreement with experiment is good.