Measurements of HO2 chemical kinetics with a new detection method

Research for the period from December 1, 1985 to May 31, 1986 is discussed, i.e., the reaction rate constant of HO2+O3 has been measured with a discharge-flow-tube apparatus. The HO2 radical was detected by the OH(A-X) photofragment emission produced from photodissociative excitation of HO2 at 147 nm. In the meantime, the optical emissions produced by the vacuum ultraviolet excitation of chemical species in the flow tube were investigated and used to examine the possibility for their interference with the HO2 detection. The research results are summarized below

Quantitative studies for photoabsorption and fluorescence of HCl

Photoabsorption and fluorescence cross sections of HCl are investigated in the wavelength region between 105 to 220 nm. The oscillator strengths of discrete structures at wavelengths shorter than 130 nm are measured

OH(A-X) fluorescence from photodissociative excitation of HO2 at 157.5 nm

The OH(A-X) fluorescence from photodissociative excitation of HO2 by F2 laser photons (157.5 nm) was observed and compared with the OH fluorescence spectra of H2O2 and the O2+CH3OH mixture. The rotational population distributions of OH(A) were obtained from the fluorescence spectra. The most populated levels are J = 4 for photodissociative excitation of HO2, J = 20 for H2O2, and J = 21 for the O2+CH3OH mixture. The fluorescence from the gas mixture is attributed to the O + H recombination for which the atoms are produced from photodissociation of parent molecules

A Search for H-alpha Absorption in the Exosphere of the Transiting Extrasolar Planet HD 209458b

There is evidence that the transiting planet HD 209458b has a large exosphere of neutral hydrogen, based on a 15% decrement in Lyman-alpha flux that was observed by Vidal-Madjar et al. during transits. Here we report upper limits on H-alpha absorption by the exosphere. The results are based on optical spectra of the parent star obtained with the Subaru High Dispersion Spectrograph. Comparison of the spectra taken inside and outside of transit reveals no exospheric H-alpha signal greater than 0.1% within a 5.1A band (chosen to have the same Delta_lambda/lambda as the 15% Ly-alpha absorption). The corresponding limit on the column density of n=2 neutral hydrogen is N_2 <~ 10^9 cm^{-2}. This limit constrains proposed models involving a hot (~10^4 K) and hydrodynamically escaping exosphere.Comment: To appear in PASJ [9 pages, 5 figures]. Minor corrections to match published versio