Related papers: Genesis of Polyatomic Molecules in Dark Clouds: CO…
H2 is the simplest and the most abundant molecule in the ISM, and its formation precedes the formation of other molecules. Understanding the dynamical influence of the environment and the interplay between the thermal processes related to…
Interstellar formamide (NH2CHO) has recently attracted significant attention due to its potential role as a molecular building block in the formation of precursor biomolecules relevant for the origin of life. Its formation, whether on the…
In this review, I discuss some highlights of recent research on molecular gas in galaxies; large-scale CO maps of nearby galaxies are being made, which extend our knowledge on global properties, radial gradients, and spiral structure of the…
Molecular Cloud Complexes (MCCs) are highly structured and ``turbulent''. Observational evidence suggests that MCCs are dynamically dominated systems, rather than quasi-equilibrium entities. The observed structure is more likely a…
Dissipative dark matter predicts rich observable phenomena that can be tested with future large-scale structure surveys. As a specific example, we study atomic dark matter, consisting of a heavy particle and a light particle charged under a…
(Abridged). In this paper, we present results from a large set of numerical simulations that demonstrate that H2 formation occurs rapidly in turbulent gas. Starting with purely atomic hydrogen, large quantities of molecular hydrogen can be…
Molecular hydrogen (H$_2$) plays a critical role in astrophysical processes from galaxy evolution to the formation of planets. While the dominant formation channel in the interstellar medium is considered as dust-catalyzed H$_2$ formation,…
Cold atomic and molecular gas are commonly observed in the winds of both external galaxies and the Milky Way, yet the survival and origin of these cool phases within hot galactic winds is poorly understood. To help gain insight into these…
Interstellar complex organic molecules (iCOMs) can be loosely defined as chemical compounds with at least six atoms in which at least one is carbon. The observations of iCOMs in star-forming regions have shown that they contain an important…
Complex organic molecules (COMs) have been detected in the gas-phase in cold and lightless molecular cores. Recent solid-state laboratory experiments have provided strong evidence that COMs can be formed on icy grains through…
The oxidation of CO on single Pd atoms anchored to MgO(100) surface oxygen vacancies is studied with temperature-programmed-reaction mass-spectrometry and infrared spectroscopy. In one-heating-cycle experiments CO$_2$, formed from O$_2$ and…
There is accumulating evidence for the presence of complex molecules, including carbon-bearing and organic molecules, in the interstellar medium. Much of this evidence comes to us from studies of chemical composition, photo- and…
The Herschel Space Observatory's recent detections of water vapor in the cold, dense cloud L1544 allow a direct comparison between observations and chemical models for oxygen species in conditions just before star formation. We explain a…
Over the last decade, observations of the cool interstellar medium in distant galaxies via molecular and atomic fine structure line emission has gone from a curious look into a few extreme, rare objects, to a mainstream tool to study galaxy…
In astrochemistry, computational methods play a crucial role in addressing fundamental astronomical questions. Interstellar molecules profoundly influence the chemistry and physics of the interstellar medium (ISM), playing pivotal roles in…
Knowledge of the molecular component of the ISM is fundamental to understand star formation. The H2 component appears to dominate the gas mass in the inner parts of galaxies, while the HI component dominates in the outer parts. Observation…
The interstellar medium (ISM) is all but empty. To date, more than 300 molecules have already been discovered. Because of the extremely low temperature, the gas-phase chemistry is dominated by barrierless exothermic reactions of radicals…
The radicals HCO and CH$_3$ on carbon monoxide ice surfaces were simulated using density functional theory. Their binding energy on amorphous CO ice shows broad distributions, with approximative average values of 500 K for HCO and 200 K for…
The study of the formation of molecular hydrogen on low temperature surfaces is of interest both because it allows to explore elementary steps in the heterogeneous catalysis of a simple molecule and because of the applications in…
The solid-state reaction C + H$_2$O $\rightarrow$ H$_2$CO was studied experimentally following the codeposition of C atoms and H$_2$O molecules at low temperatures. In spite of the reaction barrier and absence of energetic triggering, the…