The collisional excitation of CS by H ₂ O for cometary applications

Aims . Collisional rate coefficients with H 2 O as the collisional partner for cometary applications are usually missing from the literature due to the high computational cost of such calculations. One notable example is CS, which is among the dominant sulfur-bearing species observed in comets, whose formation path remains to be elucidated. Methods . To allow for the accurate determination of the physical conditions of comets where CS is detected, we conducted a study on the collisional excitation of CS induced by H 2 O. Results . The first CS–H 2 O potential energy surface (PES) was computed using the symmetry adapted perturbation theory along with the density functional theory method (SAPT-DFT). The scattering calculations were performed using the statistical adiabatic channel model (SACM) approach. The rate coefficients were employed in a non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) excitation model to discuss the impact of the new data on the modeling of CS in cometary comae where H 2 O is dominating. Conclusions . The first CS–H 2 O rate coefficients were provided for the 5–100 K temperature range, including all CS levels up to j CS = 18. It was found that using CS–H 2 rate coefficients or the global cross-section approach to supplement for missing CS–H 2 O data are not expected to perform well. Among all approximations, using CO–H 2 O rate coefficients – CO being chemically similar to CS – is expected to be the most accurate approximation. Computing collisional rate coefficients with H 2 O projectiles to address the lack of cometary data is a highly demanding task. In this work we used the SACM approach to compute the CS–H 2 O data, opening the way for further calculations for cometary applications. Further testing of the impact of the approximations used to compensate for this absence in the analysis of cometary observations is required to draw strong conclusions about the inaccuracies they may introduce.