Consistent set of electron cross sections for methane

This contribution presents a complete consistent set of electron-impact cross sections for methane (CH$_{4})$, recently made available on the IST-LISBON database with the LXCat website [1]. The set is based on the cross sections originally compiled and adjusted in [2] and first used in [3]. The elementary processes taken into account are elastic momentum-transfer, vibrational excitation of the (1,3) and (2,4) modes, total dissociation into neutrals, and ionization producing CH$_{4}^{+}$ and CH$_{3}^{+}+$H. For the latter two processes we have adjusted the partial ionization cross section of Chatham \textit{et al.} [4] as to reproduce their measured total ionization. The new cross-section set is validated by comparing calculated and measured electron swarm parameters for $E/N=$ 0.1--400 Td. A discussion of similarities and differences with sets of CH$_{4}$ cross sections from other databases~is also presented.\\[4pt] [1] http://www.lxcat.laplace.univ-tlse.fr/\\[0pt] [2] C.D. Pintassilgo, Master Thesis, Instituto Superior T\'{e}cnico (Universidade T\'{e}cnica de Lisboa), 1996\\[0pt] [3] C.D. Pintassilgo \textit{et al.}, Plasma Sources Sci. Technol. \textbf{8}, 463 (1999)\\[0pt] [4] H. Chatham \textit{et al.}, J. Chem. Phys. \textbf{81}, 1770 (1984)