Publication Date:
2017-01-12
Description:
The recent detection of anions in the interstellar medium has shown that they exist in a variety of astrophysical environments – circumstellar envelopes, cold dense molecular clouds and star-forming regions. Both radiative and collisional processes contribute to molecular excitation and de-excitation in these regions so that the ‘local thermodynamic equilibrium’ approximation, where collisions cause the gas to behave thermally, is not generally valid. Therefore, along with radiative coefficients, collisional excitation rate coefficients are needed to accurately model the anionic emission from these environments. We focus on the calculation of state-to-state rate coefficients of the C 6 H – molecule in its ground vibrational state in collisions with para-H 2 , ortho-H 2 and He using new potential energy surfaces. Dynamical calculations for the pure rotational excitation of C 6 H – were performed for the first 11 rotational levels (up to j 1 = 10) using the close-coupling method, while the coupled-states approximation was used to extend the H 2 rate coefficients to j 1 = 30, where j 1 is the angular momentum quantum number of C 6 H – . State-to-state rate coefficients were obtained for temperatures ranging from 2 to 100 K. The rate coefficients for H 2 collisions for j 1 = –1 transitions are of the order of 10 –10 cm 3 s –1 , a factor of 2 to 3 greater than those of He. Propensity rules are discussed. The collisional excitation rate coefficients produced here impact astrophysical modelling since they are required for obtaining accurate C 6 H – level populations and line emission for regions that contain anions.
Print ISSN:
0035-8711
Electronic ISSN:
1365-2966
Topics:
Physics
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