Related papers: Cosmic-ray heating of molecular cloud cores
Some observations of warm carbon chain chemistry (WCCC) cores indicate that they are often located near the edges of molecular clouds. This finding may suggest that WCCC is promoted in star-forming cores exposed to radiation from the…
The heating and cooling of the interstellar medium allow the gas in the ISM to coexist at very different temperatures in thermal pressure equilibrium. The heating cannot be directly determined, but the cooling can be inferred from…
Cosmic rays in star-forming galaxies are a dominant source of both diffuse $\gamma$-ray emission and ionisation in gas too deeply shielded for photons to penetrate. Though the cosmic rays responsible for $\gamma$-rays and ionisation are of…
The rate of ionization by cosmic rays in interstellar gas directly associated with gamma-ray emitting supernova remnants is for the first time calculated to be several orders of magnitude larger than the Galactic average. Analysis of…
As long as magnetic fields remain frozen into the gas, the magnetic braking prevents the formation of protostellar discs. This condition is subordinate to the ionisation fraction characterising the inmost parts of a collapsing cloud. The…
We consider a cosmic ray spectrum that is a power law in momentum down to a cutoff and derive a lower cutoff corresponding to $E_{kin} \sim (30-60)$ MeV from the observed ionization rates in nearby diffuse clouds. While the real spectra of…
Supernova explosions in the early star forming galaxies will accelerate cosmic rays (CRs). CRs are typically confined in the collapsed objects for a short period before escaping into the intergalactic medium (IGM). Galactic outflows can…
We study the heating of the intergalactic medium (IGM) surrounding high redshift star forming galaxies due to cosmic rays (CR). We take into account the diffusion of low energy cosmic rays and study the patchiness of the resulting heating.…
Cosmic rays (CR) play an important role in dense molecular cores, affecting their thermal and dynamical evolution and initiating the chemistry. Several studies have shown that the formation of protostellar discs in collapsing clouds is…
In light of evidence for a high ionization rate due to Low-Energy Cosmic Rays (LECR), in diffuse molecular gas in the solar neighbourhood, we evaluate their heat input to the Warm Ionized Medium (WIM). LECR are much more effective at…
We have computed the dust temperature distribution to be expected in a pre-protostellar core in the phase prior to the onset of gravitational instability. We have done this in the approximation that the heating of the dust grains is solely…
We have obtained estimates for the cosmic-ray ionization rate (CRIR) in the Galactic disk, using a detailed model for the physics and chemistry of diffuse interstellar gas clouds to interpret previously-published measurements of the…
The formation of protostellar discs is severely hampered by magnetic braking, as long as magnetic fields remain frozen in the gas. The latter condition depends on the levels of ionisation that characterise the innermost regions of a…
We present the results of a three-dimensional Monte Carlo radiative transfer code for starless molecular cloud cores heated by an external isotropic or non-isotropic interstellar radiation field. The code computes the dust temperature…
The molecular gas in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Galaxy has been studied using infrared absorption spectra of H$_3^+$ lines at 3.5-4.0 $\mu$m and CO lines near 2.34 $\mu$m. In addition to the previously reported spectra of these…
The spatial distribution of the cosmic-ray flux is important in understanding the Interstellar Medium (ISM) of the Galaxy. This distribution can be analyzed by studying different molecular species along different sight lines whose…
Cosmic rays pervade the Galaxy and are thought to be accelerated in supernova shocks. The interaction of cosmic rays with dense interstellar matter has two important effects: 1) high energy (>1 GeV) protons produce {\gamma}-rays by…
Stochastic heating of small grains is often mentioned as a primary cause of large infrared (IR) fluxes from star-forming galaxies, e.g. at 24\mu m. If the mechanism does work at a galaxy-wide scale, it should show up at smaller scales as…
Low-energy cosmic rays are the dominant source of ionization for molecular cloud cores. The ionization fraction, in turn, controls the coupling of the magnetic field to the gas and hence the dynamical evolution of the cores. The purpose of…
The propagation of high-energy cosmic rays through giant molecular clouds constitutes a fundamental process in astronomy and astrophysics. The diffusion of cosmic-rays through these magnetically turbulent environments is often studied…