Reactive Collisions Between Electons and Molecular Ions-Essential Elementary Processes in the Interstellar Media

We describe the major low-energy electron-impact processes involving H+2 and HD+, relevant for the early universe astrochemistry: dissociative recombination, inelastic and superelastic scattering. The Multichannel Quantum Defect Theory (MQDT) has been employed in computing cross sections and Maxwell rate coefficients for electrondriven reactions involving molecular cations. A new series of computations has been performed to obtain cross sections and rate coefficients for state-to-state ro-vibrational transitions on the H+2 and HD+ ion, induced in collisions with low-energy electrons. We report cross sections and Maxwellian rate coefficients for both rotational and vibrational transitions, from the lowest 30 ro-vibrational levels and outline several important features, like rotational and resonant effects.