Inelastic scattering is a fundamental collisional process that plays an important role in many areas of chemistry, and its detailed study can provide valuable insight into more complex chemical systems. Here, we report the measurement of differential cross-sections for the rotationally inelastic scattering of NO(X2Π1/2, v=0, j=0.5, f) by Ar at a collision energy of 530 cm(-1) in unprecedented detail, with full Λ-doublet (hence total NO parity) resolution in both the initial and final rotational quantum states. The observed differential cross-sections depend sensitively on the change in total NO parity on collision. Differential cross-sections for total parity-conserving and changing collisions have distinct, novel quantum-mechanical interference structures, reflecting different sensitivities to specific homonuclear and heteronuclear terms in the interaction potential. The experimental data agree remarkably well with rigorous quantum-mechanical scattering calculations, and reveal the role played by total parity in acting as a potential energy landscape filter.

This paper concerns the semiclassical description, calculation and measurement of angular momentum polarization in the products of elementary gas-phase bimolecular reactions. A unified, semiclassical treatment of the centre-of-mass correlated (k,k′,j′) angular distribution involving the reagent and product relative velocity and the product angular momentum vectors is described, and is related to other methodologies already existing in the literature. Explicit expressions are provided enabling experimentalists to extract rotational polarization information from crossed-molecular beam and photon-initiated reaction studies, under a variety of experimental conditions. Furthermore, the strategy developed is well suited to the theoretical calculation of reaction product polarization, in particular, using classical trajectory methods. An illustrative example of such a calculation is presented, and the centre-of-mass polarization data provided is used to simulate the laboratory frame rotational moments that can be determined experimentally using 1+1 Doppler-resolved polarized Laser product probing techniques.

First accurate quantum mechanical (QM) calculations of integral and differential cross sections for the C(1D)+H2(v=0,j=0,1) insertion reaction have been performed on a newly developed ab initio potential energy surface [B. Bussery-Honvault et al., J. Chem. Phys. 115, 10701 (2001)]. These results have been compared with those obtained with a quasi-classical trajectory (QCT) method. A Gaussian-weighted binning procedure to assign product quantum states in the QCT calculations yields vibrational branching ratios and rotational distributions in better agreement with the QM calculations than those obtained when the usual histogramatic binning method is employed. This is the first time that the Gaussian-weighted binning procedure is used for an insertion reaction.

We present the first astronomical detection of a diatomic negative ion, the cyanide anion CN − , and quantum mechanical calculations of the excitation of this anion by means of collisions with para-H 2 . The anion CN − is identified by observing the J = 2−1 and J = 3−2 rotational transitions in the C-star envelope IRC +10216 with the IRAM 30-m telescope. The U-shaped line profiles indicate that CN − , like the large anion C 6 H − , is formed in the outer regions of the envelope. Chemical and excitation model calculations suggest that this species forms from the reaction of large carbon anions with N atoms, rather than from the radiative attachment of an electron to CN, as is the case for large molecular anions. The unexpectedly high abundance derived for CN − , 0.25% relative to CN, indicates that its detection in other astronomical sources is likely. A parallel search for the small anion C 2 H − remains inconclusive, despite the previous tentative identification of the J = 1−0 rotational transition. The abundance of C 2 H − in IRC +10216 is found to be vanishingly small, <0.0014% relative to C 2 H.

This article presents theoretical methods for the description of the directional effect of reactant rotation on the reactivity of atom-diatom systems and suggests an experiment that could be used to test theoretical predictions. The theory can be used in conjunction with both quantum reactive scattering and quasiclassical trajectory calculations, and is stated in general terms, which allows it to deal with arbitrary reactant polarizations. The illustrative results obtained for the benchmark H + D2 reaction are also presented and show that under experimentally achievable conditions one can largely control reactive cross sections and product state distributions, while at the same time gaining valuable and at times surprising information on the reaction mechanism.