Interaction-induced dipoles of hydrogen molecules colliding with helium atoms: A new ab initio dipole surface for high-temperature applications

Abstract

We report new ab initio results for the interaction-induced dipole moments Δμ of hydrogen molecules colliding with helium atoms. These results are needed in order to calculate collision-induced absorption spectra at high temperatures; applications include modeling the radiative profiles of very cool white dwarf stars, with temperatures from 3500 K to 9000 K. We have evaluated the dipoles based on finite-field calculations, with coupled cluster methods in MOLPRO 2006 and aug-cc-pV5Z (spdfg) basis sets for both the H and He centers. We have obtained values of Δμ for eight H(2) bond lengths ranging from 0.942 a.u. to 2.801 a.u., for 15 intermolecular separations R ranging from 2.0 a.u. to 10.0 a.u., and for 19 different relative orientations. In general, our values agree well with earlier ab initio results, for the geometrical configurations that are treated in common, but we have determined more points on the collision-induced dipole surface by an order of magnitude. These results make it possible to calculate transition probabilities for molecules in excited vibrational states, overtones, and rotational transitions with ΔJ > 4. We have cast our results in the symmetry-adapted form needed for absorption line shape calculations, by expressing Δμ as a series in the spherical harmonics of the orientation angles of the intermolecular vector and of a unit vector along the H(2) bond axis. The expansion coefficients depend on the H(2) bond length and the intermolecular distance R. For large separations R, we show that the ab initio values of the leading coefficients converge to the predictions from perturbation theory, including both classical multipole polarization and dispersion effects.