Electron Impact Excitation of Rare Gases: Differential Cross Sections and Angular Correlation Parameters for Neon, Argon, Krypton and Xenon

Distorted-wave Born approximation results for the differential cross sections and various angular correlation parameters for electron impact excitation of the rare gases Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe are presented and compared with recent experimental data and other theoretical calculations. The sensitivity of the results to different static and optical potentials in the calculation of the distorted waves is analysed and the importance of relativistic effects both in the description of the target states (intermediate coupling) as well as in the wavefunction for the continuum electron is investigated. The overall agreement with the available experimental data is very satisfactory over a wide range of incident-electron energies