Low temperature rate coefficients of the H + CH+ → C+ + H2 reaction: New potential energy surface and time-independent quantum scattering

The observed abundances of the methylidyne cation, CH(+), in diffuse molecular clouds can be two orders of magnitude higher than the prediction of the standard gas-phase models which, in turn, predict rather well the abundances of neutral CH. It is therefore necessary to investigate all the possible formation and destruction processes of CH(+) in the interstellar medium with the most abundant species H, H2, and e(-). In this work, we address the destruction process of CH(+) by hydrogen abstraction. We report a new calculation of the low temperature rate coefficients for the abstraction reaction, using accurate time-independent quantum scattering and a new high-level ab initio global potenti…