Spontaneous radiative dissociation in molecular hydrogen

The spontaneous radiative dissociations of the discrete vibrational levels of the B¹Σ⁺_u electronic states of H₂, HD and D₂ of the C¹Π_u electronic state of H₂ into the vibrational continuum of the ground X¹Σ⁺_g state are calculated as a function of the emission wavelength. The fluorescent spectra of HD in the Lyman system and of H₂ in the Werner system resulting from an excitation source uniform in wavelength are predicted. The vibrational radiative lifetimes are tabulated as are the fractions of radiative decays that lead to dissociation. The effects of centrifugal distortion are discussed briefly. An appendix describes a sum rule used to check the numerical accuracy of the calculations.