Related papers: The chemistry of vibrationally excited H2 in the i…
Molecular hydrogen is the most abundant molecular species in the Universe. While no doubts exist that it is mainly formed on the interstellar dust grain surfaces, many details of this process remain poorly known. In this work, we focus on…
The formation of CH+ in the interstellar medium has long been an outstanding problem in chemical models. In order to probe the physical conditions of the ISM in which CH+ forms, we propose the use of CH3+ observations. The pathway to…
We present a detailed theoretical study of the rotational excitation of CH$^+$ due to reactive and nonreactive collisions involving C$^+(^2P)$, H$_2$, CH$^+$, H and free electrons. Specifically, the formation of CH$^+$ proceeds through the…
The chemistry of the diffuse interstellar medium is driven by the combined influences of cosmic rays, ultraviolet (UV) radiation, and turbulence. Previously detected at the outer edges of photodissociation regions (PDRs) and formed from the…
This paper presents an analysis of the concentration of the hydrogen molecule inside the ionized region of planetary nebulae. The equations corresponding to the ionization and chemical equilibria of H, H+, H-, H2, H2+, and H3+ are coupled…
Observations of CO+ suggest column densities on the order 10^12 cm^-2 that can not be reproduced by many chemical models. CO+ is more likely to be destroyed than excited in collisions with hydrogen. An anomalous excitation mechanism may…
UV irradiation of simple ices is proposed to efficiently produce complex organic species during star- and planet-formation. Through a series of laboratory experiments, we investigate the effects of the H2O concentration, the dominant ice…
Small carbon hydride cations, such as the methylidyne ion (CH$^+$), play an important role in the chemistry of the interstellar medium (ISM). They participate in gas-phase reaction networks leading to the formation of hydrocarbon species…
Context. Recent spectroscopic measurements have revealed absorption from higher rotational levels in C$_2$ than previous observations. These improvements are accompanied by the availability of updated radiative and collisional data. Aims.…
We present analytic theory for the total column density of singly ionized carbon (C+) in the optically thick photon dominated regions (PDRs) of far-UV irradiated (star-forming) molecular clouds. We derive a simple formula for the C+ column…
Although they are only minor constituents of the interstellar medium, halogen-containing molecules are of special interest because of their unique thermochemistry. Here, we present a theoretical study of the chemistry of interstellar…
Aims. We probe the effect of turbulent diffusion on the chemistry at the interface between a cold neutral medium (CNM) cloudlet and the warm neutral medium (WNM). Methods. We perform moving grid, multifluid, 1D, hydrodynamical simulations…
We present results from high-resolution three-dimensional simulations of turbulent interstellar gas that self-consistently follow its coupled thermal, chemical and dynamical evolution, with a particular focus on the formation and…
This paper assesses the roles of the presence of warm H2, and the increased formation rate due to the ion-neutral drift. We performed ideal MHD simulations that include the heating and cooling of the multiphase ISM, and where we treat…
Aims. Interstellar dust grains, because of their catalytic properties, are crucial to the formation of H2, the most abundant molecule in the Universe. The formation of molecular hydrogen strongly depends on the ability of H atoms to stick…
We present LVG and non-local radiative transfer calculations involving the rotational and hyperfine structure of the spectrum of N$_2$H$^+$ with collisional rate coefficients recently derived by us. The goal of this study is to check the…
We investigate the correlation between OH and H2 column densities in diffuse Galactic clouds, in order to identify potential molecular tracers of interstellar H2. For this, we analyse near-UV spectra extracted from the ESO/VLT archives…
Planetary nebulae are sites where ejected stellar material evolves into complex molecules, but the precise physical conditions and chemical routes that govern these processes are unclear. The presence of abundant carbon-rich molecules in…
We have developed a model for molecular hydrogen formation under astrophysically relevant conditions. This model takes fully into account the presence of both physisorbed and chemisorbed sites on the surface, allows quantum mechanical…
We carried out an observational search for the recently discovered molecule H2NC, and its more stable isomer H2CN, toward eight cold dense clouds (L1544, L134N, TMC-2, Lupus-1A, L1489, TMC-1 NH3, L1498, and L1641N) and two diffuse clouds…