Rotational excitation of interstellar molecular ions by electrons

Electrons are known to be efficient in rotationally exciting molecular ions in cold ionized media. Rotational effects have also been shown to affect the dissociative recombination (DR) process. Electron collisions are thus expected to play a significant role in the thermalization and dissociation dynamics of molecular ions, both in the laboratory and in space. Using the molecular R-matrix method combined with the Adiabatic-Nuclei-Rotation (ANR) approximation corrected for threshold and closed-channel effects, we have computed new rate coefficients for the rotational excitation of H+3 and HCO+ by electrons at temperatures from 10 to 1 000K. At temperatures above rotational thresholds, rotational rates are found to compete or even dominate those of dissociative recombination, suggesting that electron collisions provide a possible source of rotational (de)excitation in DR measurements.