The oxidation of metals at low temperatures is important not only from a fundamental point of view but also from technological relevance. Recent research has demonstrated that the nanoscale oxidation of metals such as Zr can be significantly altered during photon radiation. While there have been some experimental results to this effect, there are still no quantitative models to explain the enhancement in oxidation and the resulting self-limiting oxide thickness in the presence of radiation. In this paper, we report a detailed theoretical and numerical study of UV light-enhanced low-temperature metal oxidation. This model takes into consideration oxygen adsorption and desorption at the oxide/gas interface, ionic currents within the growing oxides enhanced by the UV-induced high-field migration, as well as electronic tunnel current in the metal-oxide-oxygen systems. Compared to the low tunnel electronic current in natural oxidation (without UV light), the tunnel electronic current due to excitation in the UV-light- enhanced oxidation process is dramatically larger than the thermionic electron current, leading to an increased oxide thickness. In addition, the model is utilized to calculate the self-limiting oxide thickness as a function of temperature with and without UV radiation, including the effect of oxygen partial pressure. Our numerical calculations indicate trends consistent with reported experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]