Abstract
We report new elastic and inelastic cross-sections for O(3P) + CO2 scattering at collision energies from 0.03 to 5 eV, of major importance to O escape from Mars, Venus, and CO2-rich atmospheres. The cross-sections were calculated from first principles using three newly constructed ab initio potential energy surfaces correlating to the lowest energy asymptote of the complex. The surfaces were restricted to a planar geometry with the CO2 molecule assumed to be in linear configuration fixed at equilibrium. Quantum-mechanical coupled-channel formalism with a large basis set was used to compute state-To-state integral and differential cross-sections for elastic and inelastic O(3P) + CO2 scattering between all pairs of rotational states of CO2 molecule. The elastic cross-sections are 35 per cent lower at 0.5 eV and more than 50 per cent lower at 4 + eV than values commonly used in studies of processes in upper and middle planetary atmospheres of Mars, Earth, Venus, and CO2-rich planets. Momentum transfer cross-sections, of interest for energy transport, were found to be proportionally lower than predicted by mass scaling.
Original language | British English |
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Pages (from-to) | 5650-5659 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |
Volume | 491 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Feb 2020 |
Keywords
- molecular processes
- planetary nebulae: general
- planets and satellites: Atmospheres
- scattering