Variational Treatment of Electron-Hydrogen Atom Elastic Scattering

Abstract

The Hulthén-Kohn variational method is applied to the elastic scattering of electrons by hydrogen atoms. The trial function used is of a nonseparable form, allows for the virtual excitation of the $2s$ and $3s$ states, and contains a scaling parameter which is allowed to vary. The resulting scattering lengths and $S$, $P$, and $D$ singlet and triplet phase shifts are compared with the results of other calculations, and reasons are given for expecting them to be of improved accuracy.