Collisional transfer of roto-vibrational energy from quantum calculations: The He-HF system

Summary The problem of simultaneous vibrational and rotational excitations of HF molecules in collision with helium has been approached via a quantum-mechanical treatment of the full dynamics and by employing a very accurate potential-energy surface suggested earlier in the literature. The complicated coupling of rotational and vibrational channels has been partly simplified by taking advantage of their different time scales, thus allowing a reduction of dimensionality for the corresponding multichannel scattering couple equations (IOS approximation). The relative influence of the various modes on preferential energy depositions upon collision is discussedvis à vis specific features of the interaction and specific regions of the range of collision energies employed. The essential inefficiency of (R, T) processes as apposed to (V, T) or (V, R, T) processes is once more pointed out for the present system. To speed up publication, the authors of this paper have agreed to not receive the proofs for correction.