Differential cross section, atom-diatom

Consider an atom-diatom A + BCiE J ) collision at total energy E with AB(EAg,jAg) + C as one possible product. Here EBC,jgC are the internal energy and rotational angular momentum of the BC diatom and EAB,jAB are the analogous AB variables. The differential cross section for scattering into dEAB djAB (other cross sections have analogous formulations) is given by... 

Figure 20.4 illustrates schematically the differential cross-section versus the state-to-state differential cross-section for an atom-diatom molecule. 

This diatom-diatom reaction, as one of the most "simple four-atom reactions, has become a test system towards the development of rigorous quantum reactive scattering methods [68]. The reaction is characterized by a direct mechanism with no potential well being present. This, together with the light masses involved, makes this reaction favourable for the application of exact quantum methods [69]. On the experimental side, thermal rate coefficients [70], absolute [60] and differential cross sections [71] have been measured. 

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