Nonadiabatic nuclear dynamics of atomic collisions based on branching classical trajectories

Abstract

The branching classical trajectory method for inelastic atomic collision processes is proposed. The approach is based on two features: (i) branching of a classical trajectory in a nonadiabatic region and (ii) the nonadiabatic transition probability formulas particularly adapted for a classical trajectory treatment. In addition to transition probabilities and inelastic cross sections, the proposed approach allows one to calculate incoming and outgoing currents. The method is applied to inelastic Na + H collisions providing the results in reasonable agreement with full quantum calculations.