THE SPECTRUM OF HOT-WATER - ROTATIONAL TRANSITIONS AND DIFFERENCE BANDS IN THE (020)VIBRATIONAL-STATES, (100)VIBRATIONAL-STATES, AND (001)VIBRATIONAL-STATES

Analysis of the hot H(2)(16)0 spectrum, presented by Polyansky et al. (1996, J. Mol. Spectrosc. 176, 305-315), is extended to higher vibrati onal states. Three hundred thirty mainly strong lines are assigned to pure rotational transitions in the (100), (001), and (020) vibrational states. These lines, which involve significantly higher rotational en ergy levels than were known previously, are assigned using high-accura cy variational calculations. Transitions in (020) are assigned up to K -a = 18, compared with the maximum K-a of 10 known previously. Crossin gs of vibration-rotation energy levels result in the observation of ex tra intensity-stealing transitions. In particular, this leads to the a ssignment of (020)-(100) and(100)-(020) rotational difference band tra nsitions in addition to the conventional pure rotational lines in (020 ) and (100) states. These extra lines increase the number of transitio ns and they are likely to complicate the pure rotational water spectru m in higher excited vibrational states to an even greater extent. A fe w lines from our previous work on the pure rotational spectrum of hot water in the (000) and (010) vibrational states are also reassigned an d some further assignments are made. (C) 1997 Academic Press.