Hyperfine excitation of N2H+ by H2: towards a revision of N2H+ abundance in cold molecular clouds

International audienceThe modelling of emission spectra of molecules seen in interstellar clouds requires the knowledge of collisional rate coefficients. Among the commonly observed species, N2H+ is of particular interest since it was shown to be a good probe of the physical conditions of cold molecular clouds. Thus, we have calculated hyperfine-structure-resolved excitation rate coefficients of N2H+(X1Σ+) by H2(j = 0), the most abundant collisional partner in the cold interstellar medium. The calculations are based on a new potential energy surface, obtained from highly correlated ab initio calculations. State-to-state rate coefficients between the first hyperfine levels were calculated, for temperatures ranging from 5 to 70 K. By comparison with previously published N2H+–He rate coefficients, we found significant differences which cannot be reproduced by a simple scaling relationship. As a first application, we also performed radiative transfer calculations, for physical conditions typical of cold molecular clouds. We found that the simulated line intensities significantly increase when using the new H2 rate coefficients, by comparison with the predictions based on the He rate coefficients. In particular, we revisited the modelling of the N2H+ emission in the LDN 183 core, using the new collisional data, and found that all three of the density, gas kinetic temperature and N2H+ abundance had to be revised