(De)excitation rates of H2O by H2

DOI

The interpretation of water line emission from existing observations and future HIFI/Herschel data requires a detailed knowledge of collisional rate coefficients. Among all relevant collisional mechanisms, the rotational (de)excitation of H2O by H2 molecules is the process of most interest in interstellar space. We provide rate coefficients for rotational de-excitation among the lowest 45 para and 45 ortho rotational levels of H2O colliding with both para and ortho-H2 in the temperature range 20-2000K. Rate coefficients are calculated on a recent high-accuracy H2O-H2 potential energy surface using quasi-classical trajectory calculations. Trajectories are sampled by a canonical Monte-Carlo procedure. H2 molecules are assumed rotationally thermalized at the kinetic temperature. By comparison with quantum calculations available for low lying levels, classical rates are found to be accurate within a factor of 1-3 for the dominant transitions, that is those with rates larger than a few 10^-12^cm^3^/s. Large velocity gradient modelling shows that the new rates have a significant impact on emission line fluxes and that they should be adopted in any detailed population model of water in warm and hot environments.

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier.34721029
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/472/1029
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/472/1029
Related Identifier http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/472/1029
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/472/1029
Provenance
Creator Faure A.; Crimier N.; Ceccarelli C.; Valiron P.; Wiesenfeld L.; Dubernet L.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2008
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Interdisciplinary Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Physics