Coppola, CM;
D'Introno, R;
Galli, D;
Tennyson, J;
Longo, S;
(2012)
Non-equilibrium h-2 formation in the early universe: energy exchanges, rate coefficients, and spectral distortions.
Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
, 199
(1)
, Article 16. 10.1088/0067-0049/199/1/16.
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Abstract
Energy exchange processes play a crucial role in the early universe, affecting the thermal balance and the dynamical evolution of the primordial gas. In the present work we focus on the consequences of a non-thermal distribution of the level populations of H2: first, we determine the excitation temperatures of vibrational transitions and the non-equilibrium heat transfer; second, we compare the modifications to chemical reaction rate coefficients with respect to the values obtained assuming local thermodynamic equilibrium; and third, we compute the spectral distortions to the cosmic background radiation generated by the formation of H2 in vibrationally excited levels. We conclude that non-equilibrium processes cannot be ignored in cosmological simulations of the evolution of baryons, although their observational signatures remain below current limits of detection. New fits to the equilibrium and non-equilibrium heat transfer functions are provided.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Non-equilibrium h-2 formation in the early universe: energy exchanges, rate coefficients, and spectral distortions |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1088/0067-0049/199/1/16 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0067-0049/199/1/16 |
| Language: | English |
| Keywords: | Cosmic background radiation, Early universe, Molecular processes |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1334975 |
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