Physicists report the first laboratory measurements of electron reactions with helium hydride ions in the cryogenic storage ring CSR at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg. At temperatures down to 6 K, the reaction rates destroying the molecule were found to be significantly lower compared to previous measurements at room temperature. This translates into a strongly enhanced abundance of this primordial molecule acting as a coolant for first star and galaxy formation in the early universe.
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