Professor Larry A. Viehland is supported by a grant from the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Program to study the way diatomic ions move through dilute gases under the influence of electric fields. The appropriate Boltzmann-like kinetic equation will be solved in order to systemmatically approximate the ion mobility and diffusion coefficients for comparison with experiments. The calculations will be extended to the determination of the ion velocity distribution functions. This will allow calculation of the reaction rate coefficients measured in swarm experiments and provide an assessment of the accuracy of our knowledge of diatomic ion/molecule reaction cross sections. %%% A thorough understanding of interaction between ions and neutral molecules is important in such fields as atomic and molecular physics, aeronomy and atmospheric chemistry, gaseous electronics, and laser physics. Viehland studies the mobility and diffusion of ions moving through trace amounts of dilute gases under the influence of an electric field. These conditions are frequently encountered in laboratories where ion molecule reactions are studied.
