Quantum mechanical calculations of vibrational transition probabilities in collinear atom–triatom collisions

Quantum mechanical calculations have been made of vibrational transition probabilities in the collinear collision of an inert gas atom with either CO₂ or OCS. The dependence of the transition probability on the relative translational energy and the reduced mass is similar to that found for atom–diatom collisions. The transition P_{00 → 10} (excitation of the first stretching mode) is much greater than P_{00 → 01} (the second stretching mode). This is largely due to the difference in frequencies but it has been shown that there is an independent mass factor responsible for this difference.