The Effect of Non-equilibrium Kinetics on Oxygen Chemistry in the Interstellar Medium

It has been suggested that in photon-dominated regions, oxygen chemistry is initiated by the O+H2 yields OH+H reaction. The reaction has an energy barrier of about 0.4 eV with ground state reactants and it is slow at low temperatures. There is strong experimental evidence that vibrational excitation of the H2 molecule increases the reactivity significantly. We present extensive quantum calculations of cross sections and rate coefficients for the O+H2(v) reaction for v = 0 - 3 of the H2 molecule and show that the vibrational excitation of the molecule has a significant effect on reactivity, especially at low temperatures