Quenching of metastable hydrogen atoms by low energy collisions with hydrogen molecules: comparison of experiments with theory

The experimental velocity dependence of the quenching cross section of metastable H(2S) atoms in low energy collisions with hydrogen molecules is compared with theoretical calculations using the formalism of Gersten. This formalism takes into account possible changes of the molecular rotational energy and is in good agreement with experiments at low energies where other theories fail. A dependence of this cross section on the temperature of the molecular gas is predicted which is due to the temperature dependent population of the molecular rotational levels.