Molecular anions in circumstellar envelopes, interstellar clouds and planetary atmospheres: quantum dynamics of formation and evolution

Abstract

For decades astronomers and astrophysicists believed that only positively charged ions were worthy of relevance in drawing the networks for possible chemical reactions in the interstellar medium, as well as in modeling the physical conditions in most of astrophysical environments. Thus, molecular negative ions received minor attention until their possible existence was observationally confirmed (discovery of the first interstellar anion, C6H-), about thirty years after the first physically reasonable proposal on their actual detection was theoretically surmised by E.Herbst. In an astrophysical context, their role should be then found in their involvement in the charge balance as well as in the chemical evolution of the considered environment: depending on their amount and on the global gas density, in fact, the possible evolutive scenario could be susceptible of marked variations on the estimated time needed for reaching the steady state, their presence having thus also important repercussions on the final chemical composition of a given environment. The main reasons that originally motivated us to undertake the present work, were at least two. First of all, we intended to demonstrate the importance of resonances in forming molecular anions in different astrophysical environments. Secondly, we were attracted by the possibility of investigating the occurrence of radiationless paths like intramolecular vibrational redistributions to account for the dissipation of the extra energy initially carried by the impinging electron. Accordingly, the present PhD represents a theoretical/computational work which deals with an area placed at the boundary between (molecular) astrophysics, quantum collision thery, and theoretical chemistry. The three molecular species whose behaviour under low-energy electron collisions will be discussed are: the ortho-benzyne, the coronene and the carbon nitride.