Resonant molecular formation

F=0,1 (72)

F=0,1 (73)

As discussed in detail in earlier chapters, these are indeed the key rates which we wish to test by our measurements. The nominal rates for the resonant formation were taken from the work of Faifman and his colleagues (Refs. [133,70,71,72]), calculated for isolated target molecules at 3 K with the quadrupole interaction included, but correlations among target molecules not taken into account. These rates are calculated separately for different $\mu t$hyperfine states, and target molecule rotational states (ortho and para). Since our D₂ layers were made by rapid freezing of warm gas, it is expected that the ortho-para ratio is statistical (2 to 1), and is so assumed in the simulations. The predicted rates by Faifman are given Fig. 2.4. A peak value for F=1 in ortho D₂ for example is s^-1 with a resonance energy of 0.45 eV.