Molecular Dissociation in Presence of a Catalyst II: The bond breaking role of the transition from virtual to localized states.

ANDRES RUDERMAN; HORACIO PASTAWSKI; ELIZABETH SANTOS; AXEL DENTE

Materials Research Express

IOP Publishing

Año: 2016 vol. 3 p. 850171 - 850179

We address a molecular dissociation mechanism that is known tooccur when a H2 molecule approaches a catalyst with its molecularaxis parallel to the surface. It is found that molecular dissociation isa form of quantum dynamical phase transition associated to an analyticdiscontinuity of quite unusual nature: the molecule is destabilizedby the transition from non-physical virtual states into actual localizedstates. Current description complements our recent results for amolecule approaching the catalyst with its molecular axis perpendicularto the surface [1]. Also, such a description can be seen as a furthersuccessful implementation of a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian in a welldefined model.