State-to-state dynamics of H+HD→H2+D at 0.5 eV:: A combined theoretical and experimental study

The state-to-state dynamics of the H+HD-->H-2+D reaction at a collisional energy of 0.5 eV was studied experimentally using a crossed molecular beam apparatus using the H atom Rydberg tagging time-of-flight detection scheme, and modeled theoretically using a converged quantum scattering calculation on the ground potential energy surface. The experimental results agreed very well with the theoretical calculations without considering the geometrical phase at this collisional energy. The results indicate that the H+HD reaction at this energy is dominated by a simple rebound mechanism along a collinear reaction path. Both experimental and theoretical results show that the rotational state distribution of the H-2 product is strongly influenced by nuclear spin statistics. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.