Resonant Transfer of Vibrational Energy in Molecular Collisions

Abstract

The cross section for resonant vibration—vibration energy exchange between infrared‐active molecules due to the long‐range dipole potential is formulated. It is found that despite certain restrictions imposed by rotational selection rules, energy‐exchange cross sections may be as much as 0.01 to 0.1 times as large as the molecular gas‐kinetic cross section and are greater than those estimated using only an exponential repulsive interaction between molecules.