Insights into the semiclassical Wigner treatment of bimolecular collisions.
The semiclassical Wigner treatment of bimolecular collisions, proposed by Lee and Scully on a partly intuitive basis [J. Chem. Phys. 73, 2238 (1980)], is derived here from first principles. The derivation combines Heller's ideas [J. Chem. Phys. 62, 1544 (1975); ibid. 65, 1289 (1976); ibid. 75, 186 (1981)], the backward picture of molecular collisions [L. Bonnet, J. Chem. Phys. 133, 174108 (2010)] and the microreversibility principle.