ELECTRON-NITROGEN MOLECULE COLLISIONS IN HIGH-TEMPERATURE NON-EQUILIBRIUM AIR.

Ab initio calculation of vibrational excitation and de-excitation cross sections of N//2 by low-energy resonant electron impact have been carried out. The calculation includes initial target state in v equals 0 to 12 and final target state in v equals 0 to 17. The calculated cross sections are found to agree with available experimental data to within reported experimental error. Effect of target rotation has been investigated. Comparison of vibrational excitation cross sections at J equals 0 and J equals 50 shows that the major effect of target rotation is to lower the resonance energy. Vibrational excitation and de-excitation rate coefficients are tabulated for electron temperatures from 1100 degree K to 55000 degree K. The present tabulation supersedes an earlier NRL compilation which was derived from experimental data with a factor-of-two error. The tabulated rate coefficients are suited for AOTV flow field modelling.