Complete photo-induced breakup of the h2 molecule as a probe of molecular electron correlation

Despite decades of progress in quantum mechanics, electron correlation ef-fects are still only partially understood. Experiments in which both electrons are ejected from an oriented hydrogen molecule by absorption of a single photon have recently demonstrated a puzzling phenomenon: The ejection pattern of the electrons depends sensitively on the bond distance between the two nuclei as they vibrate in their ground state. Here, we report a com-plete numerical solution of the Schrödinger equation for the double photo-ionization of H2. The results suggest that the distribution of photoelectrons emitted from aligned molecules reflects electron correlation effects that are purely molecular in origin. Chemical physics has long sought deeper insight into correlation effects because they lie at the heart of understanding atomic and molecular structure. Because quantum me-chanics does not offer an analytic solution o