Detection of a vibration-rotation emission line of hydrogen deuteride toward Orion Peak 1: excitation coupling of HD to H₂

The 2.46um v=1-0 R(5) line of deuterated molecular hydrogen, HD, has been detected in the Orion Peak~1 shock emission region, at a surface brightness of (8.5 +/- 2.1) x 10^(-9) W m^(-2)sr^(-1) over a 6 arcsec^2 area. Comparison of the column density of HD(v=1,J=6) with the column density of HD(v=0,J=6) previously observed from ISO and the H_2 level column densities toward the same region implies that the excitation of HD is similar to that of H_2 for these energy levels, despite much higher spontaneous transition rates for HD. We suggest that this rough equality is caused by the coupling of the HD levels to those of H_2, due to strong reactive collisions, HD + H -> H_2 + D, in warm, partially dissociated gas. The deuterium abundance implied by the combined ISO and UKIRT measurements toward Orion Peak 1 is [D]/[H] = (5.1 +/- 1.9)x10^(-6).