Relation between total cross section data and the interaction potential; A comparison with closely connected data

Abstract

The information on the spherical interaction potential contained in total collision cross section data in the glory region is investigated. The amplitude of the glory undulations is found to be a predominant measure for the curvature of the potential around its minimum. The information on the potential from the amplitude is strongly related to the information that can be obtained from spectroscopic data on the vibrational level spacings. The location of the glory extrema yields a measure for the area of the potential well. A strong correlation is shown to be present between the value of the area parameter and the low temperature second virial coefficient and its temperature derivative. To the non-glory total cross section a rather well defined probing distance can be attributed, suggesting that a scheme for direct inversion of such data into potential data may be worked out.