QUANTUM CALCULATION OF INELASTIC CO COLLISIONS WITH H. I. ROTATIONAL QUENCHING OF LOW-LYING ROTATIONAL LEVELS

New quantum scattering calculations for rotational deexcitation transitions of CO induced by H collisions using two CO–H potential energy surfaces (PESs) from Shepler et al. are reported. State-to-state rate coefficients are computed for temperatures ranging from 1 to 3000 K for CO(v = 0, j) deexcitation from j = 1 to 5 to all lower j′ levels, with j being the rotational quantum number. Different resonance structures in the cross sections are attributed to the differences in the anisotropy and the long-range van der Waals well depths of the two PESs. These differences affect rate coefficients at low temperatures and give an indication of the uncertainty of the results. Significant discrepancies are found between the current rate coefficients and previous results computed using earlier potentials, while the current results satisfy expected propensity rules. Astrophysical applications to modeling far infrared and submillimeter observations are briefly discussed.