Importance of coriolis coupling in isotopic branching in (He, HD⁺) collisions

Abstract

A three-dimensional time-dependent quantum mechanical wave packet approach is used to calculate the reaction probability (P^R) and integral reaction cross section values for both channels of the reaction He+HD⁺(v=1; j=0)→HeH (D)⁺+D (H) over a range of translational energy (E_trans) on the McLaughlin-Thompson-Joseph-Sathyamurthy potential energy surface including the Coriolis coupling (CC) term in the Hamiltonian. The reaction probability plots as a function of translational energy for different J values exhibit several oscillations, which are characteristic of the system. The σ^R values obtained by including CC and not including it are nearly the same over the range of E_trans investigated for the HeD⁺ channel. For the HeH⁺ channel, on the other hand, σ^R values obtained from CC calculations are significantly smaller than those obtained from coupled state calculations. These results are compared with the available experimental results. The computed branching ratios (Γ_σ=σ^R(HeH⁺)/σ^R (HeD⁺)) are also compared with the available experimental results.