QUANTUM-MECHANICAL CALCULATIONS OF THE DISSOCIATION OF H-3 RYDBERG STATES

We present three-dimensional, time-dependent quantum-mechanical calculations of the dynamics of the dissociation of H-3 Rydberg states at total energies up to 6 eV. The method used in this work employs a Chebychev propagator in time, and computes the kinetic-energy operators in the discrete variable representation. We calculate the total dissociation cross section, as well as partial vibrational and rotational cross sections, and compare our results to previous two-dimensional calculations and to experiment. The results display clear three-dimensional effects, and indicate the importance of including both sheets of the H-3 ground potential-energy surface in the dynamics.