Geometric phase effects inH3predissociation

Abstract

We model the predissociation of H3 in the electronic state corresponding to the upper sheet of the conically intersecting 1 2A[prime] and 2 2A[prime] states, and we show that product-state rovibrational distributions are strongly influenced by the geometric phase. Similarly, the differences in the product-state energy distributions in recent three-body dissociation experiments for the 2s,2A 1 [prime] and 2p,2A 2 [double-prime] states of H3 are shown to result from the presence of the geometric phase in this system, and thus provide experimental evidence of the influence of this phase in a molecular dynamical process.