The H2+ + He proton transfer reaction: quantum reactive differential cross sections to be linked with future velocity mapping experiments

Abstract

We construct the velocity map images of the proton transfer reaction between helium and molecular hydrogen ion . We perform simulations of imaging experiments at one representative total collision energy taking into account the inherent aberrations of the velocity mapping in order to explore the feasibility of direct comparisons between theory and future experiments planned in our laboratory. The asymptotic angular distributions of the fragments in a 3D velocity space is determined from the quantum state-to-state differential reactive cross sections and reaction probabilities which are computed by using the time-independent coupled channel hyperspherical coordinate method. The calculations employ an earlier ab initio potential energy surface computed at the FCI/cc-pVQZ level of theory. The present simulations indicate that the planned experiments would be selective enough to differentiate between product distributions resulting from different initial internal states of the reactants.