Exact and approximate calculations for the effect of potential anisotropy on integral and differential cross-sections: Ar–N2 rotationally inelastic scattering

Abstract

A computational study has been made of the way the anisotropy of the intermolecular potential affects the rotationally inelastic scattering of an atom by a diatomic rigid-rotator. Four anisotropic potentials modelled on Ar–N₂ have been used. For each potential, accurate coupled-channel (CC) state-to-state degeneracy-averaged integral cross-sections have been calculated at a single collision energy. These are systematically compared with the corresponding cross-sections obtained from the centrifugal-sudden, infinite-order-sudden, decoupled-l-dominant and effective-potential approximations. Accurate CC state-to-state degeneracy-averaged differential cross-sections have also been calculated.