MULTICHANNEL QUANTUM-DEFECT THEORY OF N=2 AND 3 GERADE STATES IN H-2 - ROVIBRONIC ENERGY-LEVELS

Multichannel quantum-defect theory is applied to the gerade n=2 and 3 states of H2. In the first paper in this series [Phys. Rev. A 49, 4353 (1994)] we obtained the quantum-defect matrix of the strongly interacting g+1 double-minimum states of H2 by fitting to the ab initio clamped-nuclei electronic energies of Wolniewicz and Dressler. This matrix was used in the second paper [Phys. Rev. A 49, 4364 (1994)] to calculate the N=0 vibronic energies of the corresponding electronic states. In this paper we calculate the N0 rovibronic energies of the singlet and triplet gerade n=2 and 3 states of H2. This ab initio treatment accounts for both singly and doubly excited channels and reproduces the rovibronic energies with almost the same accuracy as the more traditional coupled-equations approach. Additionally, the experimental singlet-triplet splittings for the f levels, and the evolution of these splittings with vibrational and rotational quantum numbers, are reproduced very well. © 1994 The American Physical Society.