Related papers: The C60:C60+ ratio in diffuse and translucent inte…
We investigate the equilibrium charge distribution of dust grains in the interstellar medium (ISM). Our treatment accounts for collisional charging by electrons and ions, photoelectric charging due to a background interstellar radiation…
Newly-computed collisional rate coefficients for the excitation of C$_2$ in collisions with H$_2$, presented recently by Najar and Kalugina (2020), are significantly larger than the values adopted previously in models for the excitation of…
The detection of CF$^+$ in interstellar clouds potentially allows astronomers to infer the elemental fluorine abundance and the ionization fraction in ultraviolet-illuminated molecular gas. Because local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE)…
Recently, the presence of fullerenes in the interstellar medium (ISM) has been confirmed especially with the first confirmed identification of two strong diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) with C60+. This justifies reassesing the importance…
Ever since their first detection over 100 years ago, the mysterious diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs), a set of several hundred broad absorption features seen against distant stars in the optical and near infrared wavelength range, largely…
The electron density ($n_{e^{-}}$) plays an important role in setting the chemistry and physics of the interstellar medium. However, measurements of $n_{e^{-}}$ in neutral clouds have been directly obtained only toward a few lines of sight…
Currently ~36 different absorption bands have been detected in the infrared spectra of cold, dense interstellar and circumstellar environments. These are attributed to the vibrational transitions of ~17 different molecules frozen on dust…
H$_{\rm I}$ 21-cm and $^{12}$CO 2.6-mm line emissions respectively trace the atomic and molecular gas phases, but they miss most of the opaque H$_{\rm I}$ and diffuse H$_2$ present in the Dark Neutral Medium (DNM) at the transition between…
Fullerenes, including C60, C70, and C60+, are widespread in space through their characteristic infrared vibrational features (C60+ also reveals its presence in the interstellar medium through its electronic transitions) and offer great…
(Modified) We measure the distribution of carbon in the intergalactic medium as a function of redshift z and overdensity delta. Using a hydrodynamical simulation to link the H I absorption to the density and temperature of the absorbing…
The ionization fraction is an important factor in determining the chemical and physical evolution of star forming regions. In the dense, dark starless cores of such objects, the ionization rate is dominated by cosmic rays; it is therefore…
Context. The identification of the carriers of diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) remains one of the long-standing mysteries in astronomy. The detection of a polarisation signal in a DIB profile can be used to distinguish between a dust or…
We discuss the interstellar absorption from many atomic and molecular species seen in high-resolution $HST$/STIS UV and high-S/N optical spectra of the moderately reddened B3-5~V star HD~62542. This remarkable sight line exhibits both very…
Unless properly corrected for, the existence of intergalactic dust will introduce a redshift dependent magnitude offset to standard candle sources. This would lead to overestimated luminosity distances compared to a dust-free universe and…
The tendency of some diffuse interstellar band (DIB) carriers to concentrate in the outer, UV-illuminated layers of molecular clouds (MCs)--the ``skin effect''--makes their spatial distribution a powerful probe of their physical nature. We…
We present a comprehensive survey of CII* absorption detections toward stars within 100 pc in order to measure the distribution of electron densities present in the local interstellar medium (LISM). Using high spectral resolution…
Chemical networks used for models of interstellar clouds contain many reactions, some of them with poorly determined rate coefficients and/or products. In this work, we report a method for improving the predictions of molecular abundances…
We investigate the absorption signals of a strong diffuse interstellar band, DIB$\lambda4430$, in the circumgalactic medium (CGM) traced by MgII absorption lines. To this end, we make use of approximately 60,000 MgII absorption line spectra…
We present CCD photometry in UBVRI of several thousand Galactic field stars in four large (>1 degree^2) regions centered on diffuse interstellar dust clouds, commonly referred to as ``cirrus'' clouds (with optical depth A_V less than…
A quantitative interpretation of the observed relation between the interstellar linear polarization curve parameters $K$ and $\lambda_{\max}$ characterizing the width and the wavelength of a polarization maximum, respectively, is given. The…