Publication Date:
2021-10-28
Description:
In our recent papers a non-standard quasi-molecular mechanism was suggested and applied to treat the cosmological recombination. It was assumed that, in the pre-recombination stage of evolution of the Universe, an electron combined with two neighbouring protons and created a hydrogen molecular ion, $H_2^+$ in a highly excited state, which then descended into the lower-lying state or dissociated. In this work, we implement a quantitative analysis of this quasi-molecular mechanism of recombination; namely, we elaborate the scheme of calculation for a free–bound radiative transition. We show that the quasi-molecular mechanism played a significant role in the pre-recombination and recombination stages of evolution of the early Universe, and hence must be included into the consideration of the description of a thermal history of the Universe. Together with the earlier developed treatment of bound-bound radiative transitions in $H_2^+$, the elaborated scheme of calculation can be used for the design of a rapid and complete cosmological recombination code.
Print ISSN:
0035-8711
Electronic ISSN:
1365-2966
Topics:
Physics
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