Can symmetric molecules cool down in space? (Bonus: how to build a perfect electrostatic lens)

As more and more complex molecules are being discovered in the interstellar medium, laboratory astrophysics aims at understanding their life cycle- how are they formed? How are they destroyed? And how does their internal energy evolve with time? In this talk the cryogenic storage ring (CSR) located in Heidelberg, Germany, will be presented, which is arguably the most advanced instrument for laboratory astrophysics. Recent results we have obtained in the ring studying the radiative vibrational cooling of a small symmetric molecule will be presented. These results help elucidate a key process in physical chemistry known as IVR (intramolecular vibrational redistribution). Our work offers the first determination of IVR rates for low lying energy states which occur on ultra-long time scales (tens of seconds). 

In the course of this collaboration we have also discovered a means of focusing charged particles with no spherical aberrations. These results and their use for photo-electron spectroscopy studies in the CSR and in our laboratory in BIU will also be shown.