10 - Applications

Summary

The applications of dissociative recombination have been described in the previous chapters in connection with discussions about different molecular ions. Thus, this chapter is short and serves to direct the reader to some key references.

Molecular astrophysics

The development of astrochemistry is well covered by the proceedings of the International Astronomical Union: Andrew (1980), Vardya and Tarafdar (1987), Singh (1992), Van Dishoeck (1997), Minh and Van Dishoeck (2000), and Lis, Blake, and Herbst (2006). Astrochemistry was also a topic at the Fifth International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies (PACIFICHEM) in December 2005 (Kaiser et al. 2006). A good introduction to the field of molecular astrophysics is the book of the same name edited by T. W. Hartquist in honor of the sixtieth birthday of Alex Dalgarno (Hartquist 1990). This was followed almost 10 years later by another book in honor of Alex Dalgarno (Hartquist & Williams 1998). During 2006, the Nobel Symposium No 133 was dedicated to cosmic chemistry and molecular astrophysics (URL: www.nobel133.physto.se), and PNAS published a special feature issue on interstellar chemistry (Klemperer 2006).

The role played by dissociative recombination in molecular astrophysics is particularly important to the chemistry of interstellar space. Eddington's 1926 Bakerian Lecture marks the starting point of the study of the interstellar medium (Eddington 1926), and the possibility of molecules in the interstellar medium was discussed even though at that time only atomic absorption lines had been observed.