The electron impact $X{}^1{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_g^{+}\to b{}^3{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_u^{+}$ transition in molecular hydrogen is one of the most important dissociation pathways to forming atomic hydrogen atoms, and is of great importance in modeling astrophysical and industrial plasmas where molecular hydrogen is a substantial constituent. Recently, it has been found that the convergent close-coupling (CCC) cross sections of Zammit et al. [Phys. Rev. A 95, 022708 (2017)] are up to a factor of 2 smaller than the currently recommended data. We have determined normalized differential cross sections for excitation of this transition from our experimental ratios of the inelastic to elastic scattering of electrons by molecular hydrogen using a transmission-free time-of-flight electron spectrometer, and find excellent agreement with the CCC calculations. Since there is already excellent agreement for the absolute elastic differential cross sections, we establish benchmark differential and integrated cross sections for the $X{}^1{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_g^{+}\to b{}^3{\mathrm{\Sigma }}_u^{+}$ transition, with theory and experiment being essentially in complete agreement.

• Received 8 March 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.97.050702