EXPERIMENTAL AND QUANTUM-MECHANICAL STUDY OF THE H-2 REACTION NEAR 0.5 EV - THE ASSESSMENT OF THE H-3 POTENTIAL-ENERGY SURFACES(D)

The hydrogen exchange reaction in its H+D-2(upsilon=0,j=0)-->HD(upsilo n'=0,j')+D isotopic variant has been investigated theoretically and ex perimentally at the collision energies 0.52 eV, 0.531 eV and 0.54 eV. A detailed comparison of converged quantum mechanical scattering calcu lations and state-to-state molecular beam experiments has allowed a di rect assessment of the quality of the different ab initio potential en ergy surfaces used in the calculations, and strongly favors the newly refined version of the Boothroyd-Keogh-Martin-Peterson surface. The di fferences found in the calculations are traced back to slight differen ces in the topology of the potential energy surfaces. (C) 1998 America n Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(98)007 5-6].