Channel mixing effects in the dissociative recombination of H3+ with slow electrons

We discuss the low-energy dissociative recombination of H-3(+) which strongly influences the abundance: of this ion in diffuse interstellar molecular clouds. The kinetic couplings between the ionization continuum and the dissociative ground state of H-3 have been used as input to a two-dimensional wave packet calculation of dissociation dynamics. The cross section obtained for direct dissociative recombination is much smaller than the latest experimental results. However, a multichannel quantum defect treatment shows that an indirect mechanism via bound Rydberg states of H-3 prevails for this process.