Statistical dynamics of energy transfer in rotationally inelastic molecule–surface scattering within the dynamical Lie algebraic method Original Research Article

The dynamical Lie algebraic (DLA) method is applied to statistical dynamics of energy transfer in rotationally inelastic molecule–surface scattering of NO molecules from Ag(1 1 1) surfaces. The statistical average values of the translational-to-rotational energy transfer and their dependence on main dynamical variables for the system, especially collision time, are obtained by the method in terms of the density operator formalism in statistical mechanics. It is shown that the DLA method appears to provide an alternative efficient technique to treat the energy transfer in the gas–surface scattering.