H2 ro-vibrational excitation in protoplanetary disks and its effects on
  the chemistry
  The effect of H$_2$ ro-vibrational excitation on the chemistry of
protoplanetary disks is studied using a framework that solves for the disk
physical and chemical structure and includes a detailed calculation of H$_2$
level populations. Chemistry with ro-vibrationally excited H$_2$ is found to be
important for the formation of several commonly observed species in disks and
this work demonstrates the need to accurately treat PDR chemistry in disks if
we are to make inferences on the chemical state of the disk during planet
formation epochs. This is found to be even more critical for molecules like
C$_2$H, CN or HCN that are commonly used to infer changes in the elemental disk
C/O and N/O ratios, with implications for planetesimal formation and the
composition of exoplanet atmospheres. Computed vertical column densities with
the full H$_2$ population calculation are increased by $\sim1-2$ orders of
magnitude for molecules such as CN, HCN/HNC compared to calculations with no
treatment of excited H$_2$. For the commonly used pseudo-level approximation,
the computed columns of these molecules are overestimated by a factor of
$\sim3-5$ when compared to the full model. We further note that the computed
abundance for these molecules strongly depends on the strength of the FUV
photons at energies that pump H$_2$ (i.e. 11-13.6 eV), which is not well
constrained in disks, and that rate constants as a function of H$_2$
ro-vibrational levels for the key reaction N + H$_2\rightarrow $ NH are needed
for a more accurate assessment of CN/HCN chemistry but are currently
unavailable.
