Savin LAW abstract

[Daniel Wolf Savin <savin@astro.columbia.edu>]

Dear LAW Staff:

Please find attached a LaTeX file of my abstract for the LAW 2006
workshop.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or
problems with the attached file.  Thanks.

Cheers,

Daniel Wolf Savin
Research Scientist and University Senator
Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory
MC 5247
550 West 120th Street
New York, NY 10027
Office: 212-854-4124
Cell:   646-707-4937
Home:   212-316-2627
Fax:    212-854-8121
email: savin@astro.columbia.edu
web page: http://www.astro.columbia.edu/~savin

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% Sample abstract for submission to NASA LAW 2006.
% See page 181-183 of Leslie Lamport's LaTeX book (second edition)
% for more info.
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\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

\title{Cosmological Implications of the Uncertainty in Astrochemical 
Rate Coefficients}

\author{
S. C. O. Glover$^{1,2}$, D. W. Savin$^3$, and A.-K. Jappsen$^2$\\
\\
$^1$American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY, USA\\
$^2$Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam, Germany\\
$^3$Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, New York, NY, USA
}

\date{6 December 2005}

\maketitle

\begin{abstract}

The cooling of neutral gas of primordial composition, or with very low
levels of metal enrichment, depends crucially on the formation of
molecular coolants, such as H$_2$ and HD within the gas. Although the
chemical reactions involved in the formation and destruction of these
molecules are well known, the same cannot be said for the rate
coefficients of these reactions, some of which are uncertain by an
order of magnitude. In this presentation, we discuss two reactions for
which large uncertainties exist -- the formation of H$_2$ by
associative detachment of H$^-$ with H and the destruction of H$^-$
by mutual neutralization with protons.  We show that these
uncertainties can have a dramatic impact on the effectiveness of
cooling during protogalactic collapse.

This work was supported in part by a NASA SARA/APRA grant.

\end{abstract}

\end{document}