Faculty Sponsor: Brian Stewart
Isaac Moss
Isaac Moss is a rising junior from Baltimore, MD, and Chicago, IL. At Wesleyan, they are double majoring in Physics and FGSS, with a minor in religion. In her spare time, she runs WILDWes, Wesleyan’s permaculture garden, works at Long Lane Farm, and hosts radio shows with WESU. She will be working as an orientation leader this upcoming year!
Abstract: In collisions between a two-atom molecule and a single atom, a given amount of energy transfer occurs, populating certain quantum states of vibrational and rotational energy. With this poster, we study the conjecture first published by Picconatto et al. in 2001, which shows that in reactive collisions such as H+H2→H2+H, the maximum rotational state is never populated, creating a kinematical limit in molecular collisions. However, our work looks at non-reactive collisions between lithium dimer (Li2) and xenon (Xe), addressing a question not considered in the earlier work. We employ the use of simulated trajectories to examine which rotational states are actually populated, making use of our programmed ab-initio potential for Li2+Xe. In the Li2+Xe simulations, we vary the initial velocity of the incoming atom in order to look at rotational state populations at different speeds. Using these methods, we discover that non-reactive collisions also follow this kinematic limit, but do not conform to the model introduced by Picconatto.
IEM_QAC_Poster