Dependence of resonant positron-molecule annihilation on molecular temperature

Measurements of positron-on-molecule annihilation as a function of positron energy have established that positrons can bind to hydrocarbon molecules via vibrational Feshbach resonances. The magnitudes of these resonances, which grow rapidly with increasing molecular size, are still not well understood. In this paper, the role of molecular temperature is investigated using a specially designed temperature-regulated annihilation cell. Only relatively small changes in annihilation rate are observed when the molecular temperature is varied by a factor of two, from 300 K down to approximately half that value for the alkane molecules pentane and heptane. These results place important constraints on theories of the annihilation rates and positron-molecule binding energies.