Nascent versus “Steady-State” Rovibrational Distributions in the Products of the O(3P) + O3(1A) Reaction

Abstract

We report a trajectory simulation study of the O2(v‘,j‘) + O2(v‘‘,j‘‘) collisional process at a translational temperature of 1500 K with a view to compare the initial and final rovibrational distributions of the colliding species. As initial rotational and vibrational micropopulations we assume those calculated for the products of the forward title reaction. Rotational relaxation is found to occur to a larger extent than vibrational relaxation, a result that is in general agreement with experimental measurements for small and moderate delay times after the reaction O + O3 → O2(v‘,j‘) + O2(v‘‘,j‘‘) has occurred. Rather than a single rotational temperature reported from the experiments, the simulations predict two disparate rotational temperatures close to those characterizing the nascent micropopulation. An increase in temperature due to vibrational−translational and rotational−translational relaxation processes is also predicted.