| Issue |
A&A
Volume 470, Number 3, August II 2007
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Page(s) | 811 - 813 | |
| Section | Astrophysical processes | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20077600 | |
| Published online | 12 June 2007 | |
An evaluation of the effect of the dissociative attachment of vibrationally excited H2 on primordial universe chemistry
1
Department of Chemistry, University of Bari, via Orabona 4, 70126 Bari, Italy e-mail: savino.longo@ba.imip.cnr.it
2
IMIP-CNR (section of Bari), via Amendola 122/D, 70126 Bari, Italy
Received:
3
April
2007
Accepted:
3
May
2007
Aims.We study the relevance of including vibrational levels of molecular hydrogen in one of the processes taking place in the primordial Universe: the dissociative attachment of H2.
Methods. We calculated the rate of dissociative attachment of H2, covering the contribution of all vibrational levels in standard conditions for primordial Universe chemistry. We then compared this rate to the rates of other chemical processes relevant for H2 balance as a function of z.
Results.It is shown that vibrationally excited levels of molecular hydrogen cannot be neglected in evaluating the rate of dissociative attachment in early Universe conditions and that this process is one of the most relevant channels for destruction of H2 molecules at z ≈103. We also propose a preliminary estimation of the effect of a possible non-equilibrium vibrational distribution on the results.
Key words: molecular processes / cosmology: early Universe
© ESO, 2007
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.