Ab initio study of the dissociative recombination of HCNH+

Dissociative recombination of protonated hydrogen cyanide HCNH+ is a very important process in dark interstellar molecular clouds. The dominant mechanism that drives this process, either ‘direct’ through a resonance, or ‘indirect’ through Rydbergs is currently an issue of controversy. Only qualitative conclusions for the branching ratio between the HCN and HNC fragments is available. We will report ab initio electron scattering calculations using the complex Kohn variational method for low energy electron scattering from HCNH+ using a correlated wave function for the target. Resonance energies and widths were abstracted and their behavior as a function of the internuclear geometry is studied.