Observation of Partial Wave Resonances in Low-Energy O 2 –H 2 Inelastic Collisions

Abstract

Quantum Collision Course Our experience of a world apparently governed by classical physics is a consequence of the fact that quantum mechanical effects average out in size regimes much larger than nanometers. Even at the molecular level, the quantized nature of rotational energy distributions is often obscured by averaging effects. Chefdeville et al. (p. 1094 ; see the Perspective by Casavecchia and Alexander ) have observed a striking manifestation of quantized rotation in the scattering trajectories of colliding H 2 and O 2 molecular beams. The experimentally resolved partial wave resonances show essentially complete agreement with theoretical calculations and deviate starkly from classical collision paradigms.