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Chemistry in the Early Universe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2017

Paul R. Shapiro
Paul R. Shapiro*
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX 78712 USA

Abstract

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Galaxies and the first stars in the universe formed billions of years ago as a result of the cooperative effects of gravitational collapse and nonequilibrium chemistry. Gravity drew the primordial gas together into lumps; the formation of the first molecules in the universe, simple diatomic molecules like H2, H2+, HD, HeH+, LiH, and LiH+, may then have ensured that the heat generated by gravitational collapse and shock waves was radiated away rapidly enough to allow the gravitational collapse and fragmentation of these gaseous lumps to proceed to the point of forming stars and galaxies. We briefly mention a few of the latest studies of this primordial chemistry, including that in the evolving intergalactic medium (IGM) in a Cold Dark Matter (CDM) model cosmology and that in radiative shocks in the early universe.

Type
Early Universe
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 150: Astrochemistry of Cosmic Phenomena , 1992 , pp. 73 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1992 

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