Interatomic Coulombic electron capture (ICEC) is an environment-mediated process in which a free electron attaches to a species by transferring excess energy to a neighbor. While previous theoretical investigations assumed fixed nuclei, recent studies indicate that nuclear dynamics significantly influences the ICEC process. In this work, we incorporate the vibrational motion into an analytical model of the ICEC cross section, including both energy and electron transfer. To validate this approach, we compare the results to the adiabatic-nuclei approximation based on fixed-nuclei ab initio R-matrix calculations. We apply our theory to the helium-neon dimer, which is ideal for studying diverse dynamical effects. We show that while vibrational dynamics can slightly reduce ICEC efficiency, ICEC remains dominant over photorecombination and can trigger dimer dissociation. Accounting for the nuclear motion also enables to describe the broadening of the electron spectrum and enables evaluation of temperature-dependent cross sections-capabilities beyond the reach of fixed-nuclei approaches.

Center for Light Matter Interaction Sensors and Analytics University of Tübingen Auf der Morgenstelle 15 72076 Tübingen Germany

Institute for Theoretical Physics Department of Physics and Astronomy KU Leuven Celestijnenlaan 200d P O Box 2415 3001 Leuven Belgium

Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry University of Tübingen Auf der Morgenstelle 18 72076 Tübingen Germany

Institute of Theoretical Physics Faculty of Mathematics and Physics Charles University 5 Holešovičkách 2 180 00 Prague Czech Republic

Laboratoire de Chimie Physique Matière et Rayonnement UMR 7614 Sorbonne Université CNRS F 75231 Paris Cedex 05 France

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