Related papers: Reaction Networks For Interstellar Chemical Modell…
We have studied gas-grain chemical models of interstellar clouds to search for nonlinear dynamical evolution. A prescription is given for producing oscillatory solutions when a bistable solution exists in the gas-phase chemistry and we…
Dimethyl ether is one of the most abundant interstellar complex organic molecules. Yet its formation route remains elusive. In this work, we have performed electronic structure and kinetics calculations to derive the rate coefficients for…
Despite the harsh conditions of the interstellar medium, chemistry thrives in it, especially in star forming regions where several interstellar complex organic molecules (iCOMs) have been detected. Yet, how these species are synthesised is…
Nucleosynthesis beyond Fe poses additional challenges not encountered when studying astrophysical processes involving light nuclei. Generally higher temperatures and nuclear level densities lead to stronger contributions of transitions on…
It has recently been shown that turbulence in the interstellar medium (ISM) can significantly accelerate the growth of dust grains by accretion of molecules, but the turbulent gas-density distribution also plays a crucial role in shaping…
With the advent of large spectroscopic surveys the amount of high quality chemo-dynamical data in the Milky Way (MW) increased tremendously. Accurately and correctly capturing and explaining the detailed features in the high-quality…
Cold interstellar gas clouds provide an exciting new method to discover dark matter. Their immense size makes them uniquely sensitive to interactions from the heaviest, most rarefied dark matter models. Using gas cloud observations, we…
We present computations of nucleosynthesis in low-mass red-giant-branch and asymptotic-giant-branch stars of Population I experiencing extended mixing. We adopt the updated version of the FRANEC evolutionary model, a new post-process code…
The ionization fraction plays a key role in the physics and chemistry of the neutral interstellar medium, from controlling the coupling of the gas to the magnetic field to allowing fast ion-neutral reactions that drive interstellar…
Turbulence can significantly accelerate the growth of dust grains by accretion of molecules. For dust dynamically coupled to the gas, the growth rate scales with the square of the Mach number, which means that the growth timescale can…
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…
The mobility of lighter species on the surface of interstellar dust grains plays a crucial role in forming simple through complex molecules. Carbon monoxide is one of the most abundant molecules, its surface diffusion on the grain surface…
Aims: We aim to simulate radial profiles of molecular abundances and the gas temperature in cold and heavily shielded starless cores by combining chemical and radiative transfer models. Methods: A determination of the dust temperature in a…
Our current understanding of interstellar carbon fractionation hinges on the interpretation of astrochemical kinetic models. Yet, the various reactions included carry large uncertainties in their (estimated) rate coefficients, notably those…
In spite of accounting for only a small fraction of the mass of the Interstellar Medium (ISM), dust plays a primary role in many physical and chemical processes in the Universe. It is the main driver of extinction of radiation in the…
Reactive chemistry of molecular hydrogen at surfaces, notably dissociative sticking and hydrogen evolution, plays a crucial role in energy storage and fuel cells. Theoretical studies can help to decipher underlying mechanisms and reaction…
One of the major obstacles to accurately model the interstellar chemistry is an inadequate knowledge about the binding energy (BE) of interstellar species with dust grains. In denser region of molecular cloud, where very complex chemistry…
Many astrochemical models today explicitly consider the species that comprise the bulk of interstellar dust grain ice-mantles separately from those in the top few monolayers. Bombardment of these ices by ionizing radiation - whether in the…
My thesis work aims to study the inter-relation between various physical and chemical conditions in a wide range of astrophysical environments. Our studied regions range from the super-hot regions (i.e., nebular, photon-dominated, or…
We present astrochemical photo-dissociation region models in which cosmic ray attenuation has been fully coupled to the chemical evolution of the gas. We model the astrochemical impact of cosmic rays, including those accelerated by…