# ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE OF THE HELIUM MOLECULAR ANION, $HE^{-}_{2}$

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 Title: ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE OF THE HELIUM MOLECULAR ANION, $HE^{-}_{2}$ Creators: Michels, H. H. Issue Date: 1984 Publisher: Ohio State University Abstract: The recently $discovered,^{1}$ long-lived metastable $He^{-}_{2}$ ion is examined using configuration interaction wavefunctions constructed from an extended STO basis. We find that the $^{4}\Pi_{g}$ state of $He^{-}_{2}$ is bound relative to the $a^{3}\Sigma_{u}^{+}$ state of $He_{2}$ for all internuclear separations greater 0.8 {\AA}. The calculated electron affinity is 0.233 eV compared to .077 eV for the $He^{-} [^{4}P^{\circ}]$ atomic ion. There are no other symmetries of $He^{-}_{2}$ that exhibit overall stability relative to $He_{2} [a^{3} \Sigma^{+}_{u}]$. We conclude that this anion decays through the long-lived 5/2g component with $\tau \sim 350 \mu$sec and the much shorter-lived 3/2g, 1/2g components with $\tau \sim 10 \mu$sec. Description: $^{\ast}$Work supported in part by AFOSR under Contract F49620-83-C-0094. $^{1}$Y.K. Bae, M.J. Coggiola and J.R. Peterson, Phys. Rev. Lett., in press. Author Institution: United Technologies Research Center, East Hartford URI: http://hdl.handle.net/1811/16834 Other Identifiers: 1984-TH-2