CO2 goes quantum in new research paper

CO2 is not pollution

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CO2 is not pollution

Extracts from an article on this, below. This is just a heads-up that the paper is about to be published. Pre-print version here, title: Fermi Resonance and the Quantum Mechanical Basis of Global Warming.
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The reason why CO2 is so good at trapping heat [Talkshop comment – according to some theorists] essentially boils down to the way the three-atom molecule vibrates as it absorbs infrared radiation from the Sun, asserts The Conversation (via Science Alert).

“It is remarkable,” Harvard University planetary scientist Robin Wordsworth and colleagues write in their new preprint, “that an apparently accidental quantum resonance in an otherwise ordinary three-atom molecule has had such a large impact on our planet’s climate over geologic time, and will also help determine its future warming due to human activity.”

When hit with incoming rays of light at certain wavelengths, CO2 molecules don’t just jiggle about as one fixed unit as you might expect. Rather, CO2 molecules – which are made up of one carbon atom flanked by two oxygens – bend and stretch in certain ways.

As you can see in the diagram [here], the two oxygen atoms can stretch outward and the central carbon atom may or may not follow, or the carbon atom can swivel around the main axis of the molecule, bending it.

A chance alignment in two of these vibrational patterns creates a type of quantum hum in CO2 molecules called Fermi resonance, which can make the molecules vibrate more.

In turn, this broadens the range of radiation that gets absorbed by CO2, as Wordsworth explained in an interview with New Scientist’s Alex Wilkins. “It’s this broadening which is really critical to understanding why carbon dioxide is an important greenhouse gas,” he said.
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However, their calculations don’t include any overlap of CO2 with other heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as methane or the radiative effects of clouds, which reflect sunlight as well, so they might need some further tweaking.

Full article here.