  Regge-pole calculated low-energy electron elastic total cross sections (TCSs)
for complex heavy atoms and fullerene molecules are characterized generally by
ground, metastable, and excited negative-ion formation, shape resonances and
Ramsauer-Townsend minima. Here the extracted anionic binding energies (BEs)
from the TCSs of various atoms and fullerenes are used to highlight the
ambiguous meaning of some current electron affinities (EAs) of heavy complex
atomic systems. The crucial question is: does the EA correspond to the BE of
the attached electron in the ground or excited state of the formed anion during
the collision?
