The hardness factor in rotational inelastic scattering

Abstract

Inelastic cross-sections for He + HF collisions have been calculated using an exponential repulsive potential in which the exponent can be increased to approach the hard shape limit. Convergence to the hard shape results is slow, particularly for a transition 0 → 3 which is near the threshold. We attribute slow convergence to the different boundary conditions that are applied in the soft and hard calculations.