Radiative cooling functions for primordial molecules

2011/03/15 by Carla Maria Coppola, Lorenzo Lodi, Jonathan Tennyson · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Atomic physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Diatomic molecule #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Ion #Molecule #Physics #Plasma #Quantum mechanics #Radiative cooling #Radiative transfer #Redshift #Thermodynamics #Triatomic molecule #Work (physics) #astro-ph.CO

paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2011.18723.x

8 pages, 9 figures, 1 table

arxiv created 2011/03/15 · openalex publication_date 2011/06/10 · arxiv updated 2015/05/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Cooling of primordial gas plays a crucial role in the birth of the first structures in our Universe. Due to the low fractional abundance of molecular species at high redshifts, spontaneous emission rather than collisions represents the most efficient way to cool the pristine plasma. In the present work, radiative cooling functions are evaluated for the diatomic species HD, HD+, HeH+, LiH and LiH+. Cooling functions for the triatomic ions H+3 and H2D+ are also considered. Analytic fits as functions of temperature are provided.

Citations

• Spectroscopy and Structure of the Lithium Hydride Diatomic Molecules and Ions

Cited by

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• The ExoMolOP database: Cross sections andk-tables for molecules of interest in high-temperature exoplanet atmospheres
• Ionization degree and magnetic diffusivity in the primordial star-forming clouds

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