Experimental Results for H₂ Formation from H⁻ and H and Implications for First Star Formation

Experimental Results for H₂ Formation from H⁻ and H and Implications for First Star Formation

During the epoch of first star formation, molecular hydrogen (H₂) generated via associative detachment (AD) of H⁻ and H is believed to have been the main coolant of primordial gas for temperatures below 10⁴ kelvin. The uncertainty in the cross section for this reaction has limited our understanding...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 329; no. 5987; pp. 69 - 71
Main Authors: Kreckel, H., Brunns, H., Čížek, M., Glover, S. C. O., Miller, K. A., Urbain, X., Savin, D. W.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 02-07-2010
The American Association for the Advancement of Science
Subjects:
Astronomy
Astrophysics
Atoms
Average linear density
Chemical elements
Coefficients
Cooling
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
Gas density
Gas temperature
Hydrogen
Ions
Laser beams
Normal stars (by class): general or individual
Population III stars
Star & galaxy formation
Star formation
Stars
Stellar characteristics and properties
Stellar populations
Uncertainty
Population III
Experimental result
Star formation
Proto galaxy
Early universe
Hydrogen molecules
Cross sections
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:During the epoch of first star formation, molecular hydrogen (H₂) generated via associative detachment (AD) of H⁻ and H is believed to have been the main coolant of primordial gas for temperatures below 10⁴ kelvin. The uncertainty in the cross section for this reaction has limited our understanding of protogalaxy formation during this epoch and of the characteristic masses and cooling times for the first stars. We report precise energy-resolved measurements of the AD reaction, made with the use of a specially constructed merged-beams apparatus. Our results agreed well with the most recent theoretically calculated cross section, which we then used in cosmological simulations to demonstrate how the reduced AD uncertainty improves constraints of the predicted masses for Population III stars.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1187191