Related papers: Successive H-atom addition to solid OCS on compact…
Complex Organic Molecules (COMs) have been detected in the interstellar medium (ISM). However, it is not clear whether their synthesis occurs on the icy surfaces of interstellar grains or via a series of gas-phase reactions. As a test case…
Cold cores in interstellar molecular clouds represent the very first phase in star formation. The physical conditions of these objects are studied in order to understand how molecular clouds evolve and how stellar masses are determined. The…
The ULIRG Mrk 231 exhibits very strong water rotational lines between \lambda = 200-670\mu m, comparable to the strength of the CO rotational lines. High redshift quasars also show similar CO and H2O line properties, while starburst…
The interstellar hydride hydroxyl (OH) is a potential tracer of CO-dark molecular gas. We present new absorption line observations of OH at 18-cm wavelength towards four continuum sources. We compare these to the [CII] line at 1.9 THz…
We have developed a model for molecular hydrogen formation under astrophysically relevant conditions. This model takes fully into account the presence of both physisorbed and chemisorbed sites on the surface, allows quantum mechanical…
Context. Radical chemical reactions on cosmic dust grains play a crucial role in forming various chemical species. Among different radicals, the hydroxyl (OH) is one of the most important ones, with a rather specific chemistry. Aims. The…
We have used the master equation approach to study a moderately complex network of diffusive reactions occurring on the surfaces of interstellar dust particles. This network is meant to apply to dense clouds in which a large portion of the…
Near ultraviolet observations of OH+ and OH in diffuse molecular clouds reveal a preference for different environments. The dominant absorption feature in OH+ arises from a main component seen in CH+ (that with the highest CH+/CH column…
Aims. We present observational results of H$_{2}$S 1$_{10}$-1$_{01}$, H$_{2}$$^{34}$S 1$_{10}$-1$_{01}$, H$_{2}$CS 5$_{14}$-4$_{14}$, HCS$^{+}$ 4-3, SiO 4-3, HC$_{3}$N 19-18 and C$^{18}$O 1-0 toward a sample of 51 late-stage massive…
We present experimental constraints on the insertion of oxygen atoms into methane to form methanol in astrophysical ice analogs. In gas-phase and theoretical studies this process has previously been demonstrated to have a very low or…
The identification of the main sulfur reservoir on its way from the diffuse interstellar medium to the cold dense star-forming cores and eventually to protostars is a long-standing problem. Despite sulfur's astrochemical relevance, the…
We examine the formation of molecular gas behind shocks in atomic gas using a chemical/dynamical model, particular emphasis is given to constraints the chemistry places on the dynamical evolution. The most important result of this study is…
Three structural isomers of the C2H4O2 molecule, namely, methyl formate (MF; HCOOCH3), acetic acid (AA; CH3COOH), and glycol aldehyde (GA; HOCH2CHO), have attracted considerable attention as targets for understanding pathways towards…
Isolated dense molecular cores are investigated to study the onset of complex organic molecule formation in interstellar ice. Sampling three cores with ongoing formation of low-mass stars (B59, B335, and L483) and one starless core (L694-2)…
Observational studies reveal that complex organic molecules (COMs) can be found in various objects associated with different star formation stages. The identification of COMs in prestellar cores, i.e., cold environments in which thermally…
Context: Chemical models of dense cloud cores often utilize the so-called pseudo-time-dependent approximation, in which the physical conditions are held fixed and uniform as the chemistry occurs. In this approximation, the initial…
Interstellar ices are mainly composed of amorphous solid water (ASW) containing small amounts of hypervolatiles, such as O2, whose diffusion-limited reactions play a key role in space chemistry. Although O2 is an important precursor…
Oxygen atom addition and insertion reactions may provide a pathway to chemical complexity in ices that are too cold for radicals to diffuse and react. We have studied the ice-phase reactions of photo-produced oxygen atoms with C2…
Water radiolysis by low-energy carbon projectiles is studied by first-principles molecular dynamics. Carbon projectiles of kinetic energies between 175 eV and 2.8 keV are shot across liquid water. Apart from translational, rotational and…
Carbon monoxide (CO) is widely used as a tracer of molecular hydrogen (H2) in metal-rich galaxies, but is known to become ineffective in low metallicity dwarf galaxies. Atomic carbon has been suggested as a superior tracer of H2 in these…