Formation of adducts of C$_6$H with Na$^+$, Mg$^+$ and Al$^+$ metal cations by radiative association

Abstract

The Mg-bearing cations MgC$_4$H$^+$, MgC$_6$H$^+$, MgC$_3$N$^+$, and MgC$_5$N$^+$ have been recently observed in the carbon-rich envelope IRC\,+10216. These species are thought to form upon radiative association between Mg$^+$ and the corresponding neutral radical. This work aims to determine the radiative association rate coefficients for the cations Al$^+$, Mg$^+$, and Na$^+$ reacting with carbon chain radicals to estimate the relative importance of metal-bearing carbon cations for each of these metals. For this purpose we use statistical methods in combination with highly accurate ab initio calculations to obtain the radiative association rate coefficient. Moreover, anisotropic effects beyond mono-dimensional capture model are considered, providing a more reliable description of the simulated processes.} The radiative association rate coefficients to form Mg-, Al- and Na-C$_6$H$^+$, as well as MgC$_4$H$^+$, MgC$_3$N$^+$, and MgC$_5$N$^+$, are calculated with the new restrictions considered in this work. These new rate coefficients are included in a chemical model of the C-rich AGB envelope IRC\,+10216. The abundances of MgC$_4$H$^+$, MgC$_6$H$^+$, and MgC$_5$N$^+$ are consistent with observations, with differences no greater than one order of magnitude, corroborating radiative association as a plausible formation mechanism for these adducts. However, the calculated abundance of MgC$_3$N$^+$ is about two orders of magnitude lower than observed, which indicates that either the chemistry of this species is significantly different from the others or the calculated rate coefficient is too low. The abundances obtained for Na-C$_6$H$^+$ and Al-C$_6$H$^+$ are around two orders of magnitude lower than for Mg, making very difficult to detect the analogous metal-bearing cations in IRC\,+10216.