Stimulated Radiative Association and its Effect on the Production of LiH in the Early Universe

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Scientific paper

The production of LiH in the postrecombination epoch was previously investigated by Stancil et al. (1996, ApJ, 458, 401) who incorporated quantal rate coefficients for the (spontaneous) radiative association reaction Li + H -> LiH + nu (Dalgarno et al. 1996, ApJ, 458, 397) into a comprehensive lithium chemistry. The fractional abundance [LiH]/[H] was found to approach ~ 10(-16) for a redshift z ~ 10; an abundance so small as to limit the utility of LiH in erasing cosmic background radiation (CBR) anisotropies through Thompson scattering (Maoli et al. 1994, ApJ, 425, 374) or to discriminate between various big bang nucleosynthesis models (Signore et al. 1994, ApJS, 92, 535). It was suggested by Dubrovich (1995, private communication) that the production of LiH could be enhanced by stimulated radiative association due to the microwave CBR field. Using a fully quantal approach (cf. Dalgarno et al. 1996), we have determined stimulated radiative association rate coefficients for the formation of LiH over a range of matter temperatures T_m and black-body radiation temperatures T_r. We find, with a slight T_m dependence, the total rate coefficients to be enhanced by factors of about 1.1, 1.3, and 4 for T_r = 500, 1000, and 5000 K, respectively. Below T_r = 100 K there is no significant enhancement. Inclusion of stimulated radiative association into the early universe chemistry results in a slight increase of the LiH fractional abundance by a maximum of ~ 25% for ~ 350 > z > 150. For higher z, the enhancement is negligible since the fractional abundance is small due to a high dissociation efficiency. For z < 100, the enhancement is also insignificant since T_r<550 K and LiH is predominantly formed through the associative detachment reaction Li(-) + H -> LiH + e(-) . The conclusions in Stancil et al. (1996) regarding the attenuation of CBR anisotropies and constraints on the lithium primordial abundance remain unchanged. Funding provided by NSF grants OSR-9353227 and AST 93-01099.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Stimulated Radiative Association and its Effect on the Production of LiH in the Early Universe does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Stimulated Radiative Association and its Effect on the Production of LiH in the Early Universe, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Stimulated Radiative Association and its Effect on the Production of LiH in the Early Universe will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1352020

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.