Statistical Theory of Bimolecular Exchange Reactions: Angular Distribution

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Abstract
The statistical theory of chemical reactions is extended to describe the angular distributions of the products. The random phase approximation is used and the coefficients of the spherical harmonics are computed statistically. The distributions, symmetric about 90° in the center‐of‐mass frame, are then transformed to the lab frame. Application was made to the Rb+CsCl→RbCl+Cs reaction. The agreement with experiment is only moderate, implying that the statistical theory predicts too little internal excitation of the products in spite of the fact that experimentally the formation of a complex seems likely.