Related papers: Extraterrestrial Photochemistry: Principles and Ap…
The properties of high energy density plasma are under increasing scrutiny in recent years due to their importance to our understanding of stellar interiors, the cores of giant planets$^{1}$, and the properties of hot plasma in inertial…
Biomolecules can be synthesized in interstellar ice grains subject to UV radiation and cosmic rays. I show that on time scales of $\gtrsim 10^{6}$ years, these processes lead to the formation of large percolation clusters of organic…
It is widely accepted that rocky planets form in the inner regions of protoplanetary disks (PPD) about 1 - 10 AU from the star. However, theoretical calculations show that when particles reach the size for which the radial migration is the…
The tentative detection by the EDGES experiment of a global 21-cm absorption trough centered at redshift 17 opens up the opportunity to study the birth of the first luminous sources, the intensity of radiation backgrounds at cosmic dawn,…
Any injection of electromagnetically interacting particles during the cosmic dark ages will lead to increased ionization, heating, production of Lyman-alpha photons and distortions to the energy spectrum of the cosmic microwave background,…
The chemical reservoir within protoplanetary disks has a direct impact on planetary compositions and the potential for life. A long-lived carbon-and nitrogen-rich chemistry at cold temperatures (<=50K) is observed within cold and evolved…
This article outlines a method to interpret the extragalactic background light in terms of the large-scale, average properties of galaxies, including the comoving densities of stars and interstellar gas, metals, and dust. These quantities…
Understanding the surface and atmospheric conditions of Earth-size, rocky planets in the habitable zones (HZs) of low-mass stars is currently one of the greatest astronomical endeavors. Knowledge of the planetary effective surface…
A detailed modeling of simultaneous UV-photochemical and thermochemical processes in exoplanet atmosphere-like conditions is essential for the analysis and interpretation of a vast amount of current and future spectral data from exoplanets.…
Ultrafast non-equilibrium dynamics offer a route to study the microscopic interactions that govern macroscopic behavior. In particular, photo-induced phase transitions (PIPTs) in solids provide a test case for how forces, and the resulting…
The photo-disintegration of cosmic ray nuclei by starlight leads to the production of secondary antineutrinos. We have assumed that the flux of the ultrahigh energy cosmic ray nuclei near the Galactic plane region is the same as that…
At the low temperatures found in the interior of dense clouds and circumstellar regions, along with H$_2$O and smaller amounts of species such as CO, CO$_2$, or CH$_3$OH, the infrared features of CH$_4$ have been observed on icy dust…
We have developed a high resolution combined physical and chemical model of a protoplanetary disk surrounding a typical T Tauri star. Our aims were to use our model to calculate the chemical structure of disks on small scales…
Interstellar polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAHs) are an important component of the interstellar medium of galaxies, containing some 10 percent of the elemental carbon. Their vibrational emission dominates the mid-infrared spectra of…
We model the photoelectric emission from and charging of interstellar dust and obtain photoelectric gas heating efficiencies as a function of grain size and the relevant ambient conditions. Using realistic grain size distributions, we…
The mechanisms by which light interacts with ice and the impact of photo-induced reactions are central to our understanding of environmental, atmospheric and astrophysical processes. However, a microscopic description of the photoproducts…
We study the effects of grain surface reactions on the chemistry of protoplanetary disks where gas, ice surface layers and icy mantles of dust grains are considered as three distinct phases. Gas phase and grain surface chemistry is found to…
Photoisomerization, i.e., a change of molecular structure after absorption of a photon, is one of the most fundamental photochemical processes. It can perform desirable functionality, e.g., as the primary photochemical event in human…
Hydroxylamine, NH2OH, is one of the already detected interstellar molecules with the highest prebiotic potential. Yet, the abundance of this molecule found by astronomical observations is rather low for a relatively simple molecule, $\sim$…
The atmospheres of small exoplanets likely derive from a combination of geochemical outgassing and primordial gases left over from formation. Secondary atmospheres, such as those of Earth, Mars and Venus, are sourced by outgassing.…