Collisional energy transfer in the CO–CO system

Abstract

An accurate determination of the physical conditions in astrophysical environments relies on the modeling of molecular spectra. In such environments, densities can be so low (n ≪ 10¹⁰ cm⁻³) that local thermodynamical equilibrium conditions cannot be maintained. Hence, radiative and collisional properties of molecules are needed to correctly model molecular spectra. For comets at large heliocentric distances, the production of carbon monoxide (CO) gas is found to be larger than the production of water, so that molecular excitation will be induced by collisions with CO molecules. This paper presents new scattering calculations for the collisional energy transfer in CO–CO collisions. Using the quantum coupled states approach, cross sections and rate coefficients are provided between the first 37 rotational states of the CO–CO system. Cross sections were calculated for energies up to 800 cm⁻¹, and excitation rate coefficients were derived for temperatures up to 100 K. In comparison with data available in the literature, significant differences were found, especially for the dominant transitions. Due to the high cost of the calculations, we also investigated the possibility of using an alternative statistical approach to extend our calculations both in terms of rotational states and temperatures considered. The use of these new collisional data should help in accurately deriving the physical conditions in CO-dominated comets.