Detailed symmetry selection rules for reactive collisions

Abstract

A simple general method for obtaining selection rules for the ro-vibronic states of reactant and product molecules connected in a reactive collision is discussed. Neglecting only the coupling with nuclear spin, rather stringent restrictions are found to occur in systems involving three and more identical nuclei. Several radical and ion molecule reactions of current interest are used to illustrate this finding. Even more restrictive selection rules are found when assuming weak coupling (‘ incomplete exchange of identical nuclei ’) in the intermediate reaction complex. These include the well-known selection rules for inelastic collisions of molecules with several identical nuclei, but less trivial examples with chemical reaction are also presented. The symmetry corrections and nuclear spin statistics in statistical theories of scattering (including the prior distributions for the information-theoretic approach) are derived. Further applications are discussed briefly.

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Martin Quack

Fellow of the Max Kade Foundation 1976/77