PREDICTION OF THE EFFECT OF THE GEOMETRIC PHASE ON PRODUCT ROTATIONAL STATE DISTRIBUTIONS AND INTEGRAL CROSS-SECTIONS

The effect of the geometric phase induced by the conical intersection between the two lowest electronic states of the H + H-2 system on product rotational state distributions and integral cross sections is investigated. This effect is shown to significantly change these distributions and the para-to-ortho and ortho-to-para integral cross sections for energies above 1.8 eV. In addition, the results are in qualitative agreement with the experimentally measured distributions for the D + H-2 reaction. They predict that under appropriate conditions the geometric phase effect may be significant in the many systems that display conical intersections.