Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

We present the results of ab initio calculations for elastic electron scattering by tetrahydrofuran (THF) using the complex Kohn variational method. We carried out fixed-nuclei calculations at the equilibrium geometry of the target molecule for incident electron energies up to 20 eV. The calculated momentum transfer cross sections clearly reveal the presence of broad shape resonance behavior in the 8-10 eV energy range, in agreement with recent experiments. The calculated differential cross sections at 20 eV, which include the effects of the long-range electron-dipole interaction, are alsofound to be in agreement with the most recent experimental findings.