Closer versus Long Range Interaction Effects on the Non-Arrhenius Behavior of Quasi-Resonant O₂ + N₂ Collisions

We report in this paper an investigation on energy transfer processes from vibration to vibration and/or translation in thermal and subthermal regimes for the O₂ + N₂ system performed using quantum–classical calculations on different empirical, semiempirical, and ab initio potential energy surfaces. In particular, the paper focuses on the rationalization of the non-Arrhenius behavior (inversion of the temperature dependence) of the quasi-resonant vibration-to-vibration energy transfer transition rate coefficients at threshold. To better understand the microscopic nature of the involved processes, we pushed the calculations to the detail of the related cross sections and analyzed the impact of the medium and long-range components of the interaction on them. Furthermore, the variation with temperature of the dependence of the quasi-resonant rate coefficient on the vibrational energy gap between initial and final vibrational states and the effectiveness of quantum–classical calculations to overcome the limitations of the purely classical treatments were also investigated. These treatments, handled in an open molecular science fashion by chaining data and competencies of the various laboratories using a grid empowered molecular simulator, have allowed a rationalization of the dependence of the computed rate coefficients in terms of the distortion of the O₂–N₂ configuration during the diatom–diatom collisions. A way of relating such distortions to a smooth and continuous <i>progress</i> variable, allowing a proper evolution from both long to closer range formulation of the interaction and from its entrance to exit channel (through the strong interaction region) relaxed graphical representations, is also discussed in the paper