Influence of a quasi-molecular mechanism of recombination on the formation of hydrogen in the early universe

Abstract

In the framework of a quasi-molecular approach, the formation of hydrogen atom in the pre-recombination period of evolution of the universe is analysed quantitatively. Calculations in an adiabatic multi-level representation enable estimates of probabilities of radiative transitions. The quasi-molecular mechanism of recombination allows the formation of hydrogen molecular ion, $H_2^{+}$, in its ground state. The probability of this process is comparable with the probability of the creation of atomic hydrogen. The participation of a second proton in the recombination increases the binding energy of an electron and decreases the rate of recombination of hydrogen.

6 pages, 1 figure

References in corpus (1)

• Vibrational level population of H${}_2$ and H${}_2^{+}$ in the early Universe

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Light one-electron quasi-molecular ions within the finite-basis-set method for the two-center Dirac equation
• Revisiting the quasi-molecular mechanism of recombination