Nonadiabatic nuclear dynamics of atomic collisions based on branching classical trajectories

The branching classical trajectory method for inelastic atomic collision processes is proposed. The approach is based on two features: (i) branching of a classical trajectory in a nonadiabatic region and (ii) the nonadiabatic transition probability formulas particularly adapted for a classical trajectory treatment. In addition to transition probabilities and inelastic cross sections, the proposed approach allows one to calculate incoming and outgoing currents. The method is applied to inelastic Na + H collisions providing the results in reasonable agreement with full quantum calculations.