DISSOCIATIVE RECOMBINATION MEASUREMENTS OF NH+ USING AN ION STORAGE RING

• We have investigated dissociative recombination (DR) of NH+ with electrons using a merged beams configuration at the TSR heavy-ion storage ring located at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany. We present our measured absolute merged-beams recombination rate coefficient for collision energies from 0 to 12 eV. From these data, we have extracted a cross section, which we have transformed to a plasma rate coefficient for the collisional plasma temperature range from T-p1 = 10 to 18,000 K. We show that the NH+ DR rate coefficient data in current astrochemical models are underestimated by up to a factor of approximately nine. Our new data will result in predicted NH+ abundances lower than those calculated by present models. This is in agreement with the sensitivity limits of all observations attempting to detect NH+ in interstellar clouds.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

astrochemistry

ISM: clouds

ISM: molecules

methods: laboratory: molecular

molecular data

molecular processes

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