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Autores principales: Mukherjee, Debaarjun, Richardson, Jeremy O.
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
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Acceso en línea:https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.22700
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author Mukherjee, Debaarjun
Richardson, Jeremy O.
author_facet Mukherjee, Debaarjun
Richardson, Jeremy O.
contents Spin-exchange collisions have been widely studied in recent years, and various quantum-mechanical scattering approaches have been developed to calculate the rates. However, these methods based on global knowledge of wavefunctions can be computationally demanding and do not offer a simple mechanistic interpretation. Here, we present a new semiclassical transition-state theory (SCTST) derived from first principles to describe the nonadiabatic transition between two states which differ only in their spins, where classical TST and Landau--Zener theory fail. We apply our theory to describe the spin-exchange collision between the nuclear spin of 3He and the electronic spin of 23Na. SCTST reveals that the reaction proceeds via a temperature-dependent transition state, determined by an intricate compromise between minimizing the activation energy and maximizing the hyperfine coupling. It further demonstrates the importance of quantum delocalization effects prevalent in spin exchange even when tunneling is suppressed and successfully explains the weak temperature dependence of the rate. Moreover, since it depends only on local information at a single point, the computational cost is significantly reduced.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_22700
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Semiclassical Spin Exchange via Temperature-Dependent Transition States
Mukherjee, Debaarjun
Richardson, Jeremy O.
Chemical Physics
Spin-exchange collisions have been widely studied in recent years, and various quantum-mechanical scattering approaches have been developed to calculate the rates. However, these methods based on global knowledge of wavefunctions can be computationally demanding and do not offer a simple mechanistic interpretation. Here, we present a new semiclassical transition-state theory (SCTST) derived from first principles to describe the nonadiabatic transition between two states which differ only in their spins, where classical TST and Landau--Zener theory fail. We apply our theory to describe the spin-exchange collision between the nuclear spin of 3He and the electronic spin of 23Na. SCTST reveals that the reaction proceeds via a temperature-dependent transition state, determined by an intricate compromise between minimizing the activation energy and maximizing the hyperfine coupling. It further demonstrates the importance of quantum delocalization effects prevalent in spin exchange even when tunneling is suppressed and successfully explains the weak temperature dependence of the rate. Moreover, since it depends only on local information at a single point, the computational cost is significantly reduced.
title Semiclassical Spin Exchange via Temperature-Dependent Transition States
topic Chemical Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.22700