The formation of highly excited H 3+ in the reaction H₂ ⁺(v) + H₂ → H 3+ + H

A quasiclassical trajectory surface hopping method has been used to study H 2+(v) + H₂ → H 3+ + H for v = 0, 3, 7, 10, 13, and 17 with an emphasis on determining the H 3+ internal energy and angular momentum distributions for high v. For v = 13 and 17, significant cross sections are found for producing H 3+ at energies above its dissociation energy. An average metastable H 3+ lifetime of 11.5 ps for v = 13 and 4.7 ps for v = 17 is found, but there is also a much longer lived component to the lifetime distributions that is more important for v = 13 than for v = 17. Some of the longer lived metastables correspond to high angular momentum orbiting states of H 3+, but other sources of metastability are also present.