Vibrationally resolved cross sections for proton collisions with hydrogen molecules

Abstract The semi-classical molecular convergent close-coupling approach has been applied to proton collisions with molecular hydrogen in the ground electronic and vibrational state. Cross sections for electron loss and electron capture agree well with the experimental data in the intermediate energy range where coupling between electronic reaction channels is strong and previously available calculations produce inconsistent results. Results for elastic scattering and total excitation are compared with effective one-electron coupled-channel calculations, showing that accurate target structure makes an important difference to these cross sections at intermediate energies. The excitation cross sections are calculated using both the fixed-nuclei and adiabatic-nuclei approximations for transitions from the X 1 Σ g + state to the B 1 Σ u + , B ′ 1 Σ u + , B ′ ′ 1 Σ u + , E F 1 Σ g + , G K 1 Σ g + , H 1 Σ g + , C 1 Π u ,