The Use of Ab Initio Wavefunctions in Line-Shape Calculations for Water Vapor

In semi-classical line-shape calculations, the internal motions of the colliding pair are treated via quantum mechanics and the collision trajectory is determined by classical dynamics. The quantum mechanical component, i.e. the determination of reduced matrix elements (RME) for the colliding pair, requires the wavefunctions of the radiating and the perturbing molecules be known. Here the reduced matrix elements for collisions in the ground vibrational state of water vapor are calculated by two methods and compared. First, wavefunctions determined by diagonalizing an effective (Watson) Hamiltonian are used to calculate the RMEs and, second, the ab initio wavefunctions of Partridge and Schwenke are used. While the ground vibrational state will yield the best approximation of the wavefunctions from the effective Hamiltonian approach, this study clearly identifies problems for states not included in the fit of the Hamiltonian and for extrapolated states. RMEs determined using ab initio wavefunctions use ∼100000 times more computational time; however, all ro-vibrational interactions are included. Hence, the ab initio approach will yield better RMEs as the number of vibrational quanta exchanged in the optical transition increases, resulting in improvements in calculated half-widths and line shifts. It is important to note that even for pure rotational transitions the use of ab initio wavefunctions will yield improved results.