A classical-impulse binary-collision model is used to predict the laboratory angle and velocity distributions of protons resulting from the vibrational dissociation of ${\mathrm{H}}_2^{+}$ by He. The treatment is partly heuristic and is not a quantitative success, since the computed cross sections turn out to be roughly an order of magnitude too large compared to those for electronic excitation of the $2p{\sigma }_u$ state of ${\mathrm{H}}_2^{+}$. Nonetheless, the theory clearly identifies some major features of the experimental results of Gibson, Los, and Schopman as being due to vibrational dissociation.

• Received 1 December 1969

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.1.1416