Nuclear spin conversion in H2O

Abstract

Nuclear spin conversion (NSC) in water molecules has often been investigated in the gas or solid phase. It has not been observed in the former yet because of the difficulty in producing an efficient disequilibrium of the spin isomer populations. Another, again failed, attempt at such an experiment is presented based on the supposed spin-selective adsorption ability of nanoporous materials. To explain the reason for so many failures, the NSC rate has been calculated in the framework of the quantum relaxation model, using the best available values of the energy levels of the vibrational ground state, the intramolecular magnetic interactions, and the collisional relaxation rates. The characteristic time of NSC in the gas phase is of the order of 1 s at ambient temperature. As NSC is observed in low-temperature matrices, the quantum relaxation model can be adapted to estimate the rate in such environments. Finally, some recent experimental results devoted to astrophysical problems are discussed.