Cold and ultracold collisions involving rotationally hot oxygen molecules are investigated using quantum-mechanical, coupled-channel, coupled-states, and effective-potential scattering formulations. Quenching rate coefficients are given for initial rotational levels near the dissociation threshold. The stability of the oxygen ``super rotors'' against collisional decay is compared to previous investigations involving hydrogen molecules where the rotational inertia was significantly smaller. In contrast to hydrogen, all possible states of rotationally hot oxygen are quenched very rapidly during a collision with a buffer gas helium atom, and the quenching efficiency is always dominated by pure rotational transitions.
We present results of quantum mechanical scattering calculations including full rovibrational coupling on the relaxation of vibrationally excited
H2 molecules in collision with ultracold
3He and
4He atoms. The exothermic vibrational deactivation cross sections exhibit minima at translational temperatures near 10 K and show an inverse velocity dependence in accordance with Wigner's threshold law in the limit of zero kinetic energy. The corresponding rate coefficients exhibit minima before attaining constant values below ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ K. The rate coefficients increase by 3 orders of magnitude when the initial vibrational level of the molecule is raised from
v=1 to
v=10. The results suggest that quasibound resonance states of
3HeH2 and
4HeH2 exist, associated with each excited vibrational state of
H2, and that both the triatomic species
3HeH2 and
4HeH2 have one bound vibrational state.
We discuss the formation of molecular oxygen in ultracold collisions between hydroxyl radicals and atomic oxygen. A time-independent quantum formalism based on hyperspherical coordinates is employed for the calculations. Elastic, inelastic, and reactive cross sections as well as the vibrational and rotational populations of the product
O2 molecules are reported. A
J-shifting approximation is used to compute the rate coefficients. At temperatures
T=10−−100mK for which the OH molecules have been cooled and trapped experimentally, the elastic and reactive rate coefficients are of comparable magnitude, while at colder temperatures,
T<1mK, the formation of molecular oxygen becomes the dominant pathway. The validity of a classical capture model to describe cold collisions of OH and O is also discussed. While very good agreement is found between classical and quantum results at
T=0.3K, at higher temperatures, the quantum calculations predict a larger rate coefficient than the classical model, in agreement with experimental data for the
O+OH reaction. The zero-temperature limiting value of the rate coefficient is predicted to be about $6\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}12}\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{cm}}^{3}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\text{molecule}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}\phantom{\rule{0.2em}{0ex}}{\mathrm{s}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$, a value comparable to that of barrierless alkali-metal atom-dimer systems and about a factor of five larger than that of the tunneling dominated
F+H2 reaction.
A quantum-mechanical investigation of the vibrational deactivation of ${}^{14}{\mathrm{N}}_{2}(\ensuremath{\nu}=1,{j}_{\mathrm{rot}}=j)$ in the ultracold collisions with
3He atoms is presented. Ab initio potential-energy calculations are carried out at BCCD(T) level and a global three-dimensional potential-energy surface is obtained by fitting ab initio points within the reproducing kernel Hilbert space method. Close coupling scattering calculations are performed at collision energy ranging from ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}6}$ to 2000 ${\mathrm{cm}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$. It is shown that the potential-energy surface supports a series of shape and Feshbach resonances. Their influence on the behavior of elastic and inelastic cross sections and quenching rate coefficients is discussed. It is demonstrated that, similar to the ${\mathrm{H}\mathrm{e}\ensuremath{-}\mathrm{O}}_{2}$ system, the rate coefficients exhibit three different regimes: Wigner regime at very low temperatures, van der Waals regime at intermediate temperatures due to series of resonances, and the usual rovibration--translation energy transfer regime at high temperatures.
We discuss the formation of molecular oxygen in ultracold collisions between hydroxyl radicals and atomic oxygen. A time-independent quantum formalism based on hyperspherical coordinates is employed for the calculations. Elastic, inelastic and reactive cross sections as well as the vibrational and rotational populations of the product O{sub 2} molecules are reported. A J-shifting approximation is used to compute the rate coefficients. At temperatures T = 10--100 mK for which the OH molecules have been cooled and trapped experimentally, the elastic and reactive rate coefficients are of comparable magnitude, while at colder temperatures, T < 1 mK, the formation of molecular oxygen becomes the dominant pathway. The validity of a classical capture model to describe cold collisions of OH and O is also discussed. While very good agreement is found between classical and quantum results at T = 0.3 K, at higher temperatures, the quantum calculations predict a higher rate coefficient than the classical model, in agreement with experimental data for the O + OH reaction. The zero-temperature limiting value of the rate coefficient is predicted to be about 6 x 10{sup -12} cm{sup 3} s{sup 01}, a value comparable to that of barrierless alkali metal atom-dimer systems and about a factor of five larger than that of the tunneling dominated F + H{sub 2} reaction.
The study of molecular inelastic collision processes at cold and ultracold temperatures is of considerable interest as schemes are currently being developed to efficiently cool and trap neutral polar molecules. In this work, quantum-mechanical scattering calculations are presented for the quenching of rotationally excited CO due to collisions with H, He and H 2 for collision energies between 10 −5 and 10 cm −1 . The calculations were performed using the close-coupling approach and the coupled-states approximation. Cross sections for the quenching of the j = 1–10, 20, 30 and 40 levels of CO are presented and mechanism and trends of energy transfer in these systems are discussed.