The rate of the F + H2 reaction at very low temperatures

The prototypical F + H2 → HF + H reaction possesses a substantial energetic barrier (~800 K) and might therefore be expected to slow to a negligible rate at low temperatures. It is, however, the only source of interstellar HF, which has been detected in a wide range of cold (10-100 K) environments. In fact, the reaction does take place efficiently at low temperatures due to quantum-mechanical tunnelling. Rate constant measurements at such temperatures have essentially been limited to fast barrierless reactions, such as those between two radicals. Using uniform supersonic hydrogen flows we can now report direct experimental measurements of the rate of this reaction down to a temperature of 11 K, in remarkable agreement with state-of-the-art quantum reactive scattering calculations. The results will allow a stronger link to be made between observations of interstellar HF and the abundance of the most common interstellar molecule, H2, and hence a more accurate estimation of the total mass of astronomical objects.