EFFECT OF THE ANGULAR-DEPENDENCE OF THE BARRIER HEIGHT ON THE FEATURES OF THE F-2 REACTION(H)

The most adequate description of the dynamical behavior of F + H-2 --> H + HF, one of the most important model elementary chemical reactions , can be achieved on potential energy surfaces (PES) with a non-collin ear transition state configuration. Each such surface is characterized by the particle interaction angle where the minimum of the barrier he ight is attained. In the present paper, an extended LEPS method where the Sate coefficients are given by a five-parameter expression is prop osed and used to examine how the dependence of the barrier height E-0 on the interaction angle gamma affects the chemical scattering dynamic s. We show that in this model system, the minimum of the dependence E- 0(gamma) and its shape determine, to a great extent, the total reactio n cross-section, the HF(upsilon(f)) product branching ratio and the an gular distribution of the product scattering. (C) 1998 Elsevier Scienc e B.V. All rights reserved.