Figure 1.

Schematic diagram for the three-body sequential dissociation scheme described in eqs 1 and 2. Panels (i) and (ii) illustrate the primary and secondary steps, respectively. Solid arrows are used to denote the momenta of the products and dotted-line arrows indicate contributions to the total momenta of the secondary products (B⁺ + C). The primary Coulomb explosion step induces rotation of the intermediate BC⁺, which, in the limit that the intermediate lifetime exceeds its rotational period, will randomly distribute the direction of the secondary dissociation impulse relative to the recoil of the primary product (A⁺).