Vector-correlation in three particle continuum states

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Hanspeter Helm
• Subject Area: Optics, Quantum Optics and Physics of Atoms, Molecules and Plasmas
• Term: from 2011 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 200692731

Recent advances in molecular dynamics indicate that theory is now on the verge of being able to predict and to explain the momentum-vector-correlations in three-particle-continuum state experiments. These vector correlations describe the orientation of momentum vectors and energy sharing when a molecule dissociates into three heavy fragments. Such experiments have to date been carried out on neutral triatomic hydrogen, by our group and that of Continetti, and in an indirect fashion in the TSR study of dissociative recombination. For almost 10 years these experiments had been carried out without guidance from theory. Only very recently did first theory papers appear on the three-particle continuum problem, in semiclassical trajectory calculations and in full quantum-mechanical wavepacket propagation. The latter predict highly structured interference features in the vector-correlation maps. These predictions challenge the experiment for confirmation, a primary goal of the project proposed here.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants