Three-Body Recombination of Oxygen Atoms

We have made a quantum mechanical perturbed stationary state calculation of the rate of three-body recombination of oxygen atoms in the presence of an oxygen molecule as third body. The recombination is considered to take place into highly vibrationally excited states (ν=9, 10) of the A 3Σu+ state of O2. There are no adjustable parameters in the calculation. For the interaction potential we have used the results obtained in a previous calculation, which were obtained by comparison with experimental measurements of vibrational relaxation times in oxygen. At temperatures of the order 300–3000°K, the calculated recombination coefficient into these two states is of the order 1–10×10—33 cm6/sec, and agrees to within better than a factor of three with recent experimental measurements.