Shape resonances in low-energy-electron collisions with halopyrimidines

We report calculated cross sections for elastic collisions of low-energy electrons with halopyrimidines, namely, 2-chloro, 2-bromo, and 5-bromopyrimidine. We employed the Schwinger multichannel method with pseudopotentials to compute the cross sections in the static-exchange and static-exchange plus polarization levels of approximation for energies up to 10 eV. We found four shape resonances for each molecule: three of π* nature localized on the ring and one of σ* nature localized along the carbon-halogen bond. We compared the calculated positions of the resonances with the electron transmission spectroscopy data measured by Modelli et al. [J. Phys. Chem. A 115, 10775 (2011)]. In general the agreement between theory and experiment is good. In particular, our results show the existence of a π* temporary anion state of A2 symmetry for all three halopyrimidines, in agreement with the dissociative electron attachment spectra also reported by Modelli et al. [J. Phys. Chem. A 115, 10775 (2011)].