The dissociation energy of the hydrogen molecule using long-range forces

New assignments of vibrational levels near dissociation in the B-1 Sigma(+)(u) state of H-2 indicate the vibrational quantum number is proportional to the one-sixth power of the binding energy, as expected theoretically from the long-range r(-3) behavior of the internuclear potential. This is used to obtain an improved dissociation limit of 118377.7 +/- 0.5 cm(-1), corresponding to a ground state (X-1 Sigma g(+)) dissociation energy D-0(0) = 36118.6 +/- 0.5 cm(-1).