The formation of highly excited H in the reaction H2+(v) + H2 → H + H

A quasiclassical trajectory surface hopping method has been used to study H(v) + H₂ → H + H for v = 0, 3, 7, 10, 13, and 17 with an emphasis on determining the H internal energy and angular momentum distributions for high v. For v = 13 and 17, significant cross sections are found for producing H at energies above its dissociation energy. An average metastable H lifetime of 11.5 ps for v = 13 and 4.7 ps for v = 17 is found, but there is also a much longer lived component to the lifetime distributions that is more important for v = 13 than for v = 17. Some of the longer lived metastables correspond to high angular momentum orbiting states of H, but other sources of metastability are also present.