Statistical Theory of Low-Energy Reactive Collisions of N(+) Ions with H2, D2, and HD Molecules

A statistical treatment is presented of reactive collisions involving N(+) ions in the (3)Pja state with H2, D2, and HD molecules in rotation level j of the ground vibration state, leading to either the reaction products H + NH(+), D + ND(+), and D + NH(+) or H + ND(+). Unlike previous theoretical work, the fine-structure states of the N(+) ions are treated on an equal footing with other internal motions. The calculated cross sections for a given ion energy are averaged over a thermal distribution of initial fine-structure states of N(+) for a temperature of 300 K and over a thermal distribution of both the internal rotation states and translation energy of H2, D2, and HD for temperatures of 305 and 105 K in order to facilitate a comparison with experiment. The results are presented for a range of collision energies from 10 meV to 1 eV.