Low energy elastic and resonant exchange cross sections between complex atoms

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Abstract
More than one interaction potential is usually needed to describe the interaction of two atoms not in 1S states. It is shown that the contributions to the mean elastic scattering cross sections from these different potentials do not interfere and that the contribution from each potential is weighted proportional to the statistical weight of the corresponding molecular state. This result is proved for like atoms as well as unlike atoms. A similar result is proved for resonant exchange collisions (charge transfer or excitation transfer). In general, there is more than one pair of gerade and ungerade potentials describing the interaction. It is shown that the contributions from these pairs to the mean differential or total resonant exchange cross section do not interfere and that they are weighted proportional to the statistical weights of the corresponding pairs of molecular states. This greatly simplifies analysis of total or differential resonant exchange between complex ions or excited atoms and their parent atoms (such as Ar+ and Ar). The effect of nuclear symmetry is also considered.

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