A study of cross sections for excitation of pseudostates

Using the electron-hydrogen scattering Temkin-Poet model we investigate the behavior of the cross sections for excitation of all of the states used in the convergent close-coupling (CCC) formalism. In the triplet channel, it is found that the cross section for exciting the positive-energy states is approximately zero near-threshold and remains so until a further energy, equal to the energy of the state, is added to the system. This is consistent with the step-function hypothesis [Bray, Phys. Rev. Lett. {bf 78} 4721 (1997)] and inconsistent with the expectations of Bencze and Chandler [Phys. Rev. A {bf 59} 3129 (1999)]. Furthermore, we compare the results of the CCC-calculated triplet and singlet single differential cross sections with the recent benchmark results of Baertschy et al. [Phys. Rev. A (to be published)], and find consistent agreement.