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From: Sam Wormley on 18 Mar 2010 23:47
Partial View

Skilled billiard players can easily predict how spinning of one ball
will affect the trajectory of the second ball it strikes in a collision.
In principle, quantum mechanics can be used to predict the analogous
impact of the angular momentum of reagents on the outcome of a chemical
reaction. In practice, however, observation of most chemical
reactions�even in the confines of a molecular beam apparatus�encompasses
a vast number of collisions over multiple angular momentum
distributions. Dong et al. (p. 1501; see the Perspective by Althorpe)
have honed their spectroscopic resolution sufficiently to distinguish
the impact of subtle angular momentum variations on the reactivity of
fluorine with hydrogen atoms. Their data agree with theory and reveal
oscillating peaks in reaction probability, termed partial wave resonances.

See: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/327/5972/1501
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Next: Quantum Gravity 361.7: Conservation of "Directed Energy" as a Dual Riccati Differential Equation