Abstract

Energy exchange processes play a crucial role in the early universe, affecting the thermal balance and the dynamical evolution of the primordial gas. In the present work we focus on the consequences of a non-thermal distribution of the level populations of H2: first, we determine the excitation temperatures of vibrational transitions and the non-equilibrium heat transfer; second, we compare the modifications to chemical reaction rate coefficients with respect to the values obtained assuming local thermodynamic equilibrium; and third, we compute the spectral distortions to the cosmic background radiation generated by the formation of H2 in vibrationally excited levels. We conclude that non-equilibrium processes cannot be ignored in cosmological simulations of the evolution of baryons, although their observational signatures remain below current limits of detection. New fits to the equilibrium and non-equilibrium heat transfer functions are provided.

Autore Pugliese

• Coppola Carla Maria , Longo Savino

Tutti gli autori

• COPPOLA C.M.;LONGO S.

Titolo volume/Rivista

Non Disponibile

Anno di pubblicazione

2012

ISSN

0067-0049

ISBN

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Wos

Nessuna citazione

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Scopus

15

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

Non Disponibile

Settori ERC

Non Disponibile

Codici ASJC

Non Disponibile