Unexpected stability of vinylidene from 5D ab initio quantum-dynamical calculations

We report results of 5D quantum-dynamical simulations for the vibrational levels and lifetime of vinylidene. The calculations are based on a new ab initio potential energy surface and reproduce the observed vibrational structure of the photodetachment spectrum very well. The lifetimes thus obtained exceed previous estimates in the literature by 2–3 orders of magnitude.