LAUSR

Abstract Radiative lifetimes of the ro-vibrational bound states of HeLi + ( b 3 ∑ + ) are calculated quantum-mechanically when both bound-bound and bound-free processes are taken into account. The calculations are restricted to the initial states with low rotational quantum numbers. For the rotationless molecular ion, the shortest lifetime is 1.30 × 10 - 6 s of the ground vibrational state. With increasing vibration excitations the radiative lifetimes slightly increase, but keep below 10 - 5 s for the next 17 vibrational states, then they start to increase more rapidly up to 2.41 × 10 - 2 s for the highest vibrational state. The radiative lifetimes also tend to slightly prolong with increasing rotational excitations but stay on the same magnitude for the low rotational quantum numbers.