Related papers: Efficient ortho-para conversion of H2 on interstel…
Investigating the dust grain size and its dependence on substructures in protoplanetary disks is a crucial step in understanding the initial process of planet formation. Spectral indices derived from millimeter observations are used as a…
Planetesimal formation via the streaming and gravitational instabilities of dust in protoplanetary disks requires a local enhancement of the dust-to-gas mass ratio. Radial drift of large grains toward pressure bumps in gas disks is a…
Protoplanetary disks are the target of many chemical studies (both observational and theoretical) as they contain the building material for planets. Their large vertical and radial gradients in density and temperature make them challenging…
The physical and chemical conditions in photodissociation regions (PDRs) are largely determined by the influence of far ultraviolet radiation. Far-UV photons can efficiently dissociate molecular hydrogen, a process that must be balanced at…
Interstellar dust grain alignment causes polarization from UV to mm wavelengths, allowing the study of the geometry and strength of the magnetic field. Over last couple of decades observations and theory have led to the establishment of the…
Water plays a crucial role both in the interstellar medium and on Earth. To constrain its formation mechanisms and its evolution through the star formation process, the determination of the water deuterium fractionation ratios is…
We report the results of spectroscopic mapping observations carried out toward the Herbig-Haro objects HH7-11 and HH54 over the 5.2 - 37 micron region using the Infrared Spectrograph of the Spitzer Space Telescope. These observations have…
We discuss the relative grain motions due to MHD turbulence in interstellar medium. It has been known for decades that turbulent drag is an efficient way to induce grain relative motions. However, earlier treatments disregarded magnetic…
Aims: The gas-phase abundance of methanol in dark quiescent cores in the interstellar medium cannot be explained by gas-phase chemistry. In fact, the only possible synthesis of this species appears to be production on the surfaces of dust…
The degree of porosity in interstellar dust-grain material is poorly defined, although recent work has suggested that the grains could be highly porous. Aside from influencing the optical properties of the dust, porosity has the potential…
When imaged at high-resolution, many proto-planetary discs show gaps and rings in their dust sub-mm continuum emission profile. These structures are widely considered to originate from local maxima in the gas pressure profile. The…
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…
The Orion Bar is one of the nearest and best-studied photodissociation or photon-dominated regions (PDRs). Observations reveal the presence of H2 lines from vibrationally or rotationally excited upper levels that suggest warm gas…
Context: Aligned dust grains are commonly exploited to probe the magnetic field orientation. However, the exact physical processes that result in a coherent large-scale grain alignment are far from being constrained. Aims: In this work, we…
Emission from the pure rotational transitions of H$_2$ traces warm molecular gas, providing insight into its temperature distribution and local heating conditions. We have extended previous power-law H$_2$ temperature models to account for…
Photodissociation regions (PDRs) are parts of the ISM consisting of predominantly neutral gas, located at the interface between H II regions and molecular clouds. The physical conditions within these regions show variations on very short…
The dependence of polarization fraction $p$ on total intensity $I$ in polarized submillimeter emission measurements is typically parameterized as $p\propto I^{-\alpha}$ $(\alpha \leq 1)$, and used to infer dust grain alignment efficiency in…
Dust grains in the interstellar medium interact with photons across the electromagnetic spectrum. They are generally photon energy converters, absorbing short wavelength radiation and emitting long wavelength radiation. Sixty years ago in…
At the low temperatures of interstellar dust grains, it is well established that surface chemistry proceeds via diffusive mechanisms of H atoms weakly bound (physisorbed) to the surface. Until recently, however, it was unknown whether atoms…
Interstellar dust has been detected in situ flowing through the heliosphere. However, our ability to derive the density and size distribution of the interstellar dust in the local interstellar medium from this directly detected dust…