RESONANT H PHOTODETACHMENT: ENHANCED PHOTODESTRUCTION AND CONSEQUENCES FOR RADIATIVE FEEDBACK

The hydrogen negative ion plays a crucial role in the formation of hydrogen molecules in the early universe. Cooling through excitation of H2 drives the formation of the rst cosmological objects. The H2 molecules are produced primarily by a reaction sequence initiated by H. We explore the inuence of enhanced photodestruction rates that arise due to absorption by resonance states of H lying near 11 eV. We examine the feedback effects that occur in radiation elds characteristic of Population III stars, blackbody sources, power-law spectra, and the hydrogen Lyman modulated sawtooth spectra of the high-redshift intergalactic medium