Influence of the alignment of CH+ ions in reactive collisions with H atoms at very low temperatures

A modified statistical treatment of the reaction H + CH + → C + + H 2 is presented in which the alignment of the reactants is studied by the introduction of a basis of adiabatic rotation states. It is found that the CH+ ions in initial j = 0 and j = 1 rotation states have a propensity to be aligned along the direction of the linear CH+–H configuration in which the reaction is blocked by a conical intersection. By excluding, at low collision energies the contribution of the j = 0 state and partially of the j = 1 state to the total reaction rate coefficient a good agreement with experiment is obtained.