Extraction of Reaction Cross Section from Rate Constant Data: D+H2→HD+H

Assuming a Boltzmann distribution of reactant velocities, rigorous and optimal bounds to the reaction cross section for the reaction D+H2→HD+H have been calculated from rate data. Neither thermal rate constant data nor rate constant data for reactions of monoenergetic D atoms with thermal H2 determine the reaction cross section. An upper bound to the threshold energy of 0.28 eV has been obtained from the thermal rate constant data. Methods based upon Tschebychev analysis have been developed to test the internal consistency of a set of data points.