C/O+ charge transfer & the Olson-Demkov model

Sammanfattning: Charge transfer reactions and their rates play a key role in correctly estimating element abundances in astrophysical objects such as supernovae. The reaction $C + O^+ \rightarrow C^+ + O(^1D) + \Delta E$ has been shown to be of significance when estimating oxygen abundances through model spectrum evaluations, and the relative rate of this reaction can under certain circumstances completely dictate the neutralization rate of oxygen ions. In this project, the rate of this reaction for four different temperatures is estimated using the Olson-Demkov model to calculate the cross section of the reaction as well as calculating rates for a few more reactions to compare to established literature values.  We find that the Olson-Demkov model produces good estimates for reactions that have small energy defects (within an order of magnitude of more rigorous quantum mechanical calculations), but the model underestimates the rate coefficient by several orders of magnitude as the energy defect increases. As the investigated reactions are all exothermic, the energy defect is the released energy from the reaction (i.e., the energy defect is positive). It is also found in most cases that the Olson-Demkov model rate is poorly estimated by the rate coefficient based only on the cross section at the mean velocity, caused by the cross section rising rapidly for velocities higher than the mean. The rate estimates produced for C+O$^+$ are also likely to be underestimated, especially for the temperatures 100 and 1000 Kelvin. No literature comparison is available for this specific reaction, but this conclusion is consistent with the other investigated reactions.