Polarization effects in electron collisions with Li2: application of the molecular R-matrix method with pseudostates

Li(2) has a huge polarizability and a huge elastic cross section for collisions with low-energy electrons. The recently developed molecular R-matrix with pseudostates (MRMPS) method is applied to electron collisions with Li(2) at energies below 5 eV. The calculations, which are shown to be stable with respect to the choice of pseudostate basis, demonstrate the power of the MRMPS method for representing target polarizabilities and polarization effects in general. A previously identified low-lying (2)Pi(u) shape resonance is found at about 0.05 eV and several other low-lying resonances and resonance-like features are identified. Cross sections for elastic and electronically inelastic electron collisions are calculated and compared with previous studies.