Entropy analysis of product energy distributions in nonreactive inelastic collisions

Final state distributions for inelastic collisions of I^*₂ with rare gas atoms are analyzed with the recently introduced surprisal function. Both experimental data and classical trajectory results are compared. Both vibrational and rotational state distributions follow linear surprisal plots, with fairly large values of λ = dj( ?E)/d(?E, indicating relatively weak coupling between internal and translational degrees of freedom. The λ_u and λ_j values appear to be relatively independent of the initial state of the excited molecule and of the collision partner.