Abstract
The detection of CF+ in interstellar clouds potentially allows astronomers to infer the elemental fluorine abundance and the ionization fraction in ultraviolet-illuminated molecular gas. Because local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) conditions are hardly fulfilled in the interstellar medium (ISM), the accurate determination of the CF+ abundance requires one to model its non-LTE excitation via both radiative and collisional processes. Here, we report quantum calculations of rate coefficients for the rotational excitation of CF+ in collisions with para- and ortho-H2 (for temperatures up to 150 K). As an application, we present non-LTE excitation models that reveal population inversion in physical conditions typical of ISM photodissociation regions (PDRs). We successfully applied these models to fit the CF+ emission lines previously observed toward the Orion Bar and Horsehead PDRs. The radiative transfer models achieved with these new rate coefficients allow the use of CF+ as a powerful probe to study molecular clouds exposed to strong stellar radiation fields.
Recommended Citation
B. Desrousseaux et al., "CF⁺ Excitation in the Interstellar Medium," Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 645, EDP Sciences, Dec 2020.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202039823
Department(s)
Chemistry
Research Center/Lab(s)
Center for High Performance Computing Research
Keywords and Phrases
ISM: general; Masers; Molecular data; Radiative transfer; Scattering
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
0004-6361; 1432-0746
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2020 EDP Sciences, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Publication Date
21 Dec 2020
