The fine-structure effect for electron impact excitation of n 3P0,1,2 states of LS-coupled atoms: II. The Mg atom

First-order many-body theory is used to predict the differential cross section (DCS) and electron spin polarization function associated with electron impact excitation of the 3(3)P levels of the Mg atom for incident electron energies of 10, 20, and 40 eV. The theoretical DCS agrees well with the measured DCS except at large scattering angles. By performing calculations with both single- and two-configuration representations of the Mg ground state, it has been determined that configuration mixing is not very important in describing the electron scattering characteristics of the Mg atom. A comparison between comparable results for He, Mg and Hg appears to support the premise that the structure present in the electron spin polarization function is due to interference among partial waves associated with the electron scattering process.