Quantum Calculation of Inelastic CO Collisions With H. III. Rate Coefficients for Ro-Vibrational Transitions

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-3-2015

Publication Title

The Astrophysical Journal

Volume

813

Issue

2

First page number:

96

Abstract

We present calculated rate coefficients for ro-vibrational transitions of CO in collisions with H atoms for a gas temperature range of 10 K ≤ T ≤ 3000 K, based on the recent three-dimensional ab initio H–CO interaction potential of Song et al. Rate coefficients for ro-vibrational transitions were obtained from scattering cross sections previously computed with the close-coupling (CC) method by Song et al. Combining these with the rate coefficients for vibrational quenching obtained with the infinite-order sudden approximation, we propose a new extrapolation scheme that yields the rate coefficients for ro-vibrational de-excitation. Cross sections and rate coefficients for ro-vibrational transitions calculated with the CC method confirm the effectiveness of this extrapolation scheme. Our calculated and extrapolated rates are very different from those that have been adopted in the modeling of many astrophysical environments. The current work provides the most comprehensive and accurate set of ro-vibrational de-excitation rate coefficients for the astrophysical modeling of the H–CO collision system. The application of the previously available and new data sets in astrophysical slab models shows that the line fluxes typically change by 20%–70% in high temperature environments (800 K) with an H/H2 ratio of 1; larger changes occur for lower temperatures.

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