PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Astron. Space Sci.
Sec. Astrochemistry
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fspas.2025.1713849
This article is part of the Research TopicRefining the Interstellar Chemical Complexity: From Molecules to ModelsView all articles
Collisional Excitation in Space: Recent Advances and Future Challenges in the JWST Era
Provisionally accepted
- UMR6251 Institut de Physique de Rennes (IPR), Rennes, France
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This perspective offers a viewpoint on how the challenges of molecular scattering investigations of astrophysical interest have evolved in recent years. Computational progress has steadily expanded collisional databases and provided essential tools for modeling non-LTE astronomical regions. However, the observational leap enabled by the JWST and new observational facilities has revealed critical gaps in these databases. In this framework, two major frontiers emerge: the characterization of collisional processes involving heavy projectiles, and the treatment of ro-vibrational excitation. The significant computational effort of these investigations emphasizes the need to test and develop robust theoretical methods and approximations, capable of extending the census of collisional coefficients required for reliable astrophysical modeling. Recent developments in these directions are outlined, with particular attention to their application and their potential to broaden the coverage of molecular systems and physical environments.
Keywords: Collision dynamics, databases, Rate coefficients, Non-LTE, JWST
Received: 26 Sep 2025; Accepted: 20 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tonolo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Francesca Tonolo, francesca.tonolo@sns.it
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