Publication Date:
2016-07-30
Description:
The OH + ions are widespread in the interstellar medium and play an important role in the interstellar chemistry as they act as precursors to the H 2 O molecule. Accurate determination of their abundance rely on their collisional rate coefficients with atomic hydrogen and electrons. In this paper, we derive OH + –H fine and hyperfine-resolved rate coefficients by extrapolating recent quantum wave packet calculations for the OH + + H collisions, including inelastic and exchange processes. The extrapolation method used is based on the infinite order sudden approach. State-to-state rate coefficients between the first 22 fine levels and 43 hyperfine levels of OH + were obtained for temperatures ranging from 10 to 1000 K. Fine structure-resolved rate coefficients present a strong propensity rule in favour of j = N transitions. The j = F propensity rule is observed for the hyperfine transitions. The new rate coefficients will help significantly in the interpretation of OH + spectra from photon-dominated region (PDR), and enable the OH + molecule to become a powerful astrophysical tool for studying the oxygen chemistry.
Print ISSN:
0035-8711
Electronic ISSN:
1365-2966
Topics:
Physics
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