Radiative transfer and molecular data for astrochemistry (Review)

TL;DR

This review discusses recent advances in molecular data and radiative transfer techniques essential for estimating molecular abundances in interstellar clouds, highlighting current methods, data, and future needs.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of radiative transfer methods and molecular data, including recent calculations and strategies for modeling in astrochemistry.

Findings

Summarizes recent molecular spectroscopic and collisional data

Provides a roadmap for selecting radiative transfer techniques

Identifies future needs in molecular data and modeling

Abstract

The estimation of molecular abundances in interstellar clouds from spectroscopic observations requires radiative transfer calculations, which depend on basic molecular input data. This paper reviews recent developments in the fields of molecular data and radiative transfer. The first part is an overview of radiative transfer techniques, along with a "road map" showing which technique should be used in which situation. The second part is a review of measurements and calculations of molecular spectroscopic and collisional data, with a summary of recent collisional calculations and suggested modeling strategies if collision data are unavailable. The paper concludes with an overview of future developments and needs in the areas of radiative transfer and molecular data.