COLLISIONAL EXCITATION OF H-2-MOLECULES BY H-ATOMS

Semiclassical trajectory calculations of the rate coefficients for rotational and vibrational energy transfer were carried out for collisions of hydrogen atoms with hydrogen molecules at a temperature of 1000 K, using three potential energy surfaces. For one surface the calculations were carried down to 200 K. The rate coefficients for reactive collisions are similar for all three surfaces. For nonreactive collisions, rate coefficients for pure rotational transitions in which j changes from 0 to 2 and from 1 to 3 change significantly from one surface to another but for higher angular momenta transitions the differences tend to disappear. The validity of the semiclassical calculations is assessed.