Electron Capture by Neutral Molecules

Abstract

The problem of calculating the probability of electron capture by neutral molecules is analyzed. It is shown that capture is possible only through the breakdown of the separation of nuclear and electronic motion in the Schrödinger equation, and that this is equivalent to the use of the nuclear kinetic energy as a perturbation operator. For diatomic molecules, it is found that capture is improbable except for those states of the negative ion whose major configuration contains at least as many MSO's of a given spin‐symmetry type as the neutral molecule. Experimental verification of this result is found in the case of hydrogen.