State-to-state reaction dynamics of 18O+32O2 studied by a time-dependent quantum wavepacket method

New Potential Energy Surface for the H + Cl2 Reaction and Quantum Dynamics Studies

The reaction of H + Cl2 → HCl + Cl plays a crucial role in various fields. However, no previous study has investigated this reaction using accurate quantum mechanical methods. In this paper, we construct a global potential energy surface (PES) using the neural network method with more than 20,000 ab initio energies obtained by the MRCI-F12+Q method with the aug-cc-pV5Z basis and extrapolated to the complete basis set limit. The spin-orbit coupling of the Cl atom has been considered in the PES. With this new PES, product state-resolved quantum dynamics calculations for the H + Cl2 (v0 = 0, j0 = 0-2) → HCl + Cl reaction was carried out. Numerical results show that the initial rotational excitation of the Cl2 has negligible effects on the reactivity. Product state-resolved integral cross sections (ICS) and rate constants reveal that the HCl is most favorably produced in its v' = 2 vibrational state. The calculated product vibrational state-resolved and total reaction rate constants suggest that the new global PES is accurate enough, as compared with the available experimental measurements.

Product State-Resolved Reactive Scattering Studies of the H + Cl2 (v0 = 1-3, j0 = 0) → HCl + Cl Reaction by the Time-Dependent Wave Packet Method

The typical hydrogen atom plus halogen molecule reaction H + Cl2 → HCl + Cl has implications across many fields. In this paper, product state-resolved quantum dynamics calculations for the vibrationally excited reaction H + Cl2 (v0 = 1-3, j0 = 0) → HCl + Cl were conducted using the time-dependent wave packet method on a newly developed accurate potential energy surface. Numerical results indicate that the initial vibrational excitation of Cl2 does enhance the reactivity for this early barrier reaction, although less than the enhancement of the translational energy. The calculated product vibrational state-resolved integral cross sections and rate constants reveal that the product vibrational state distribution and the initial vibrational state of Cl2 are highly correlated. The thermal rate constant in the temperature range from 100 to 1000 K was given and is found to be in reasonable agreement with the experimental measurements.

Nonadiabatic dynamics studies of the H(2S) + RbH(X1Σ+) reaction: based on new diabatic potential energy surfaces

The global diabatic potential energy surfaces (PESs) that correspond to the ground (1²A') and first excited states (2²A') of the RbH₂ system PES are constructed based on 17 786 ab initio points. The neural network method is used to fit the PESs and the topographic features of the new diabatic PESs are discussed in detail. Based on the newly constructed diabatic PESs, the dynamics calculations of the H(²S) + RbH(X¹Σ⁺) → Rb(5²S) + H₂(X¹Σ_g ⁺)/Rb(5²P) + H₂(X¹Σ_g ⁺) reactions are performed using the time-dependent wave packet method. The dynamics properties of these two channels such as the reaction probabilities, integral cross sections, and differential cross sections (DCSs) are calculated at state-to-state level of theory. The nonadiabatic effects are discussed in detail, and the results indicate that the adiabatic results are overestimated from the dynamics values. The DCSs of these two channels are forward biased, which indicates that the abstraction mechanism plays a dominant role in the reaction.

A new global potential energy surface of the SH2+(X4A'') system and quantum calculations for the S+ + H2(v = 0-3, j = 0) reaction

A new global potential energy surface (PES) for the ground state of the SH2+(X4A'') system is constructed using a permutation invariant polynomial neural network method. In ab initio calculations, the MRCI-F12 method with the AVTZ basis set is used. Furthermore, the dynamics calculations of the S+ + H2(v = 0-3, j = 0) → SH+ + H reaction are carried out based on the new PES. The reaction probabilities and integral cross sections are compared with available theoretical calculations. Present values are in general good agreement with the previous theoretical studies. However, some discrepancies can still be found due to different PESs used in the calculation. Furthermore, the vibrational energy of the reactant molecule can significantly enhance the reactivity compared to the translational energy. The differential cross sections indicated that the reaction mechanism is changed from the "head-on" rebound mechanism to the tripping mechanism with the increasing number of initial vibrational excitation state.

Spectroscopy and Scattering Studies Using Interpolated Ab Initio Potentials

The Born-Oppenheimer potential energy surface (PES) has come a long way since its introduction in the 1920s, both conceptually and in predictive power for practical applications. Nevertheless, nearly 100 years later-despite astonishing advances in computational power-the state-of-the-art first-principles prediction of observables related to spectroscopy and scattering dynamics is surprisingly limited. For example, the water dimer, (H₂O)₂, with only six nuclei and 20 electrons, still presents a formidable challenge for full-dimensional variational calculations of bound states and is considered out of reach for rigorous scattering calculations. The extremely poor scaling of the most rigorous quantum methods is fundamental; however, recent progress in development of approximate methodologies has opened the door to fairly routine high-quality predictions, unthinkable 20 years ago. In this review, in relation to the workflow of spectroscopy and/or scattering studies, we summarize progress and challenges in the component areas of electronic structure calculations, PES fitting, and quantum dynamical calculations.

Time-dependent quantum mechanical wave packet dynamics

Starting from a model study of the collinear (H, H₂) exchange reaction in 1959, the time-dependent quantum mechanical wave packet (TDQMWP) method has come a long way in dealing with systems as large as Cl + CH₄. The fast Fourier transform method for evaluating the second order spatial derivative of the wave function and split-operator method or Chebyshev polynomial expansion for determining the time evolution of the wave function for the system have made the approach highly accurate from a practical point of view. The TDQMWP methodology has been able to predict state-to-state differential and integral reaction cross sections accurately, in agreement with available experimental results for three dimensional (H, H₂) collisions, and identify reactive scattering resonances too. It has become a practical computational tool in predicting the observables for many A + BC exchange reactions in three dimensions and a number of larger systems. It is equally amenable to determining the bound and quasi-bound states for a variety of molecular systems. Just as it is able to deal with dissociative processes (without involving basis set expansion), it is able to deal with multi-mode nonadiabatic dynamics in multiple electronic states with equal ease. We present an overview of the method and its strength and limitations, citing examples largely from our own research groups.

Rotationally inelastic scattering of O3–Ar: state-to-state rates with the multiconfigurational time dependent Hartree method

The rates of state-changing collisions are compared for different isotopologues of ozone from quantum scattering calculations with the MCTDH method.

Dynamics studies of the H + HBr reaction: Based on a new potential energy surface

The initial state specific quantum wave packet dynamics studies of the H + HBr (v₀ = 0, j₀ = 0-2) reaction were performed using a new global potential energy surface (PES) of the ground state of the BrH₂ system for the collision energy ranging from 0.01 to 2.0 eV. The PES was constructed using the permutation invariant polynomial neural network method based on approximately 63 000 ab initio points, which were calculated by the multireference configuration interaction method with AVTZ and AVQZ basis sets. To improve the accuracy of the PES, Davidson's correction and spin-orbit coupling effects were considered in the ab initio calculation and the basis set was extrapolated to complete basis set limit. The new PES was compared with the previous ones and also the available experimental data, which suggests that the new PES is more accurate. The state-to-state quantum wave packet dynamics was carried out using the reactant-coordinate based approach. The reaction probabilities, integral and differential cross sections, rovibrational state distributions of product and rate constants, etc., were compared with the available theoretical and experimental studies. In general, the present work is in better agreement with the available experimental data. The quantum dynamics studies suggest that the rotational excitation of HBr has little effect on the reaction.

Several Levels of Theory for Description of Isotope Effects in Ozone: Symmetry Effect and Mass Effect

The essential components of theory for the description of isotope effects in recombination reaction that forms ozone are presented, including the introduction of three reaction pathways for symmetric and asymmetric isotopomers, a brief review of relevant experimental data for singly- and doubly substituted isotopologues, the definitions of ζ-effect and η-effect, and the introduction of isotopic enrichment δ. Two levels of theory are developed to elucidate the role of molecular symmetry, atomic masses, vibrational zero-point energies, and rotational excitations in the recombination process. The issue of symmetry is not trivial, since the important factors, such as 1/2 and 2, appear in seven different places in the formalism. It is demonstrated that if all these effects are taken into account properly, then no anomalous isotope effects emerge. At the next level of theory, a model is considered in which one scattering resonance (sitting right at the top of centrifugal barrier) is introduced per ro-vibrational channel. It is found that this approach is equivalent to statistical treatment with partition functions at the transition state. Accurate calculations using hyper-spherical coordinates show that no isotope effects come from difference in the number of states. In contrast, differences in vibrational and rotational energies lead to significant isotope effects. However, those effects appear to be local, found for the rather extreme values of rotational quantum numbers. They largely cancel when rate coefficients are computed for the thermal distribution of rotational excitations. Although large isotope effects (observed in experiments) are not reproduced here, this level of theory can be used as a foundation for more detailed computational treatment, with accurate information about resonance energies and lifetimes computed and included.

Quantum stochastic trajectories: the Smoluchowski-Bohm equation

Molecular systems are quantum systems, but the complete characterization of molecular motions within a fully quantum framework might appear to be an unfeasible task because it would require that the actual nuclear positions are established at any time. One would like to use a quantum molecular trajectory that defines the instantaneous nuclear positions and satisfies the predictions of quantum mechanics in terms of its statistical properties. Even though it can be proven that the single Bohm trajectory provides a representation of the quantum molecular trajectory, this solves the issue only on a theoretical ground: exact solutions of the Schrödinger-Bohm dynamical system are extremely computationally demanding. Therefore, we derive a stochastic equation of Smoluchowski type from the Schrödinger-Bohm dynamics, through projection operator techniques, in order to characterize the molecular motions of open quantum systems. The main quantum features of the motions emerge from the equilibrium distribution, i.e., the wave function's squared modulus integrated on the environment degrees of freedom. Furthermore, we verify the accuracy of the stochastic equation by comparing its predictions with those of the deterministic dynamics for a model system of six interacting harmonic oscillators. The indisputable advantage of this full quantum mechanical approach is that of representing the molecular dynamics, which controls important phenomena like vibrational relaxation, conformational transitions and activated processes, in a self consistent way and at the low computational cost of solving simple stochastic equations.

A new potential energy surface of the OH2+ system and state-to-state quantum dynamics studies of the O+ + H2 reaction

A new global potential energy surface of the O⁺ + H₂ system was constructed with neural network method, using about 63000 ab initio points, which were calculated by employing the multi-reference configuration interaction method with aug-cc-pVTZ and aug-cc-pVQZ basis sets.

On stabilization of scattering resonances in recombination reaction that forms ozone

Calculations of energy transfer in the recombination reaction that forms ozone are carried out within the framework of the mixed quantum/classical theory and using the dimensionally reduced 2D-model of ozone molecule, with bending motion neglected. Recombination rate coefficients are obtained at room temperature for symmetric and asymmetric isotopomers of singly and doubly substituted isotopologues. The processes of resonance formation, spontaneous decay, collisional dissociation, and stabilization by bath gas (Ar) are all characterized and taken into account within the steady-state approximation for kinetics. The focus is on stabilization step, where the mysterious isotopic η-effect was thought to originate from. Our results indicate no difference in cross sections for stabilization of scatteringresonances in symmetric and asymmetric isotopomers. As practical results, the general and simple analytic models for stabilization and dissociation cross sections are presented, which can be applied to resonances in any ozone molecule, symmetric or asymmetric, singly or doubly substituted. Present calculations show some isotope effect that looks similar to the experimentally observed η-effect, and the origin of this phenomenon is in the rates of formation/decay of scatteringresonances, determined by their widths, that are somewhat larger in asymmetric isotopomers than in their symmetric analogues. However, the approximate two-dimensional model used here is insufficient for consistent and reliable description of all features of the isotopic effect in ozone. Calculations using an accurate 3D model are still needed.

State-resolved differential and integral cross sections for the Ne + H2 (+) (v = 0-2, j = 0) → NeH(+) + H reaction

State-to-state quantum dynamic calculations for the proton transfer reaction Ne + H2 (+) (v = 0-2, j = 0) are performed on the most accurate LZHH potential energy surface, with the product Jacobi coordinate based time-dependent wave packet method including the Coriolis coupling. The J = 0 reaction probabilities for the title reaction agree well with previous results in a wide range of collision energy of 0.2-1.2 eV. Total integral cross sections are in reasonable agreement with the available experiment data. Vibrational excitation of the reactant is much more efficient in enhancing the reaction cross sections than translational and rotational excitation. Total differential cross sections are found to be forward-backward peaked with strong oscillations, which is the indication of the complex-forming mechanism. As the collision energy increases, state-resolved differential cross section changes from forward-backward symmetric peaked to forward scattering biased. This forward bias can be attributed to the larger J partial waves, which makes the reaction like an abstraction process. Differential cross sections summed over two different sets of J partial waves for the v = 0 reaction at the collision energy of 1.2 eV are plotted to illustrate the importance of large J partial waves in the forward bias of the differential cross sections.

A full-dimensional model of ozone forming reaction: the absolute value of the recombination rate coefficient, its pressure and temperature dependencies

Rigorous calculations of scattering resonances in ozone are carried out for a broad range of rotational excitations with a detailed analysis of their properties and contribution into recombination process.

Quantum Dynamics of the (18)O + (36)O2 Collision Process

We report full quantum cross sections and rate constants for the (18)O + (36)O2 → (36)O2 + (18)O collision process. This constitutes to the best of our knowledge the first dynamical study of the (18)O(18)O(18)O system, with three identical (18)O oxygen atoms. We emphasize the comparison with the (16)O + (32)O2 collision as this latter presents the exact same features as the one treated here, except the consistent change of mass for all three atoms. We find very similar behaviors in the cross sections, and we confirm that the rates are faster when three identical nuclei are involved. In particular, we cannot dynamically study this system with classical trajectory methods, and we have to include properly the indistinguishability of the three (18)O nuclei; however, we note some slight differences with the (16)O(16)O(16)O benchmark system, and we focus our analysis on their origin.