We report the time-dependent approach to resonant electron capture into Rydberg states in collisions with molecular cations at low impact energy, as an alternative to the method based on multichannel quantum defect theory (MQDT), and present the results for the ${\mathrm{HD}}^{+}$ ion. The propagation of the initial wave function on 13 Rydberg states (besides one valence state) correctly describes the indirect dissociative recombination mechanism in the time domain. Notably, the nonlocal coupling operator between the ionization and dissociation channels is accounted for in the indirect process, extending previous work on the case of direct coupling. The present approach compares to the MQDT framework with remarkable precision: resonant structures in the cross section correctly emerge from the wave-packet propagation; the time-dependent result also forms a cross section envelope for the dense series of ultrafine MQDT resonances corresponding to the quasicontinuous part of the Rydberg state manifold.

• Received 22 March 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.76.042702