INELASTIC COLLISIONS OF SLOW ATOMS

The general theory of fine structure transitions in atom-atom collisions is developed. It is shown that there is considerable simplification by first considering the LS coupling scheme and then transforming to the jj coupling scheme. The theory is then applied to collisions between oxygen atoms where it is assumed that the scattering is dominated by the first-order quadrupole-quadrupole term in the interaction potential. Results are presented for O(3P)-O(3P) collisions for energies below 0·12 ev. The total cross section is found to vary from 492 πa0 2 at threshold to 128 πa02 at 0·12 ev.