Related papers: One-dimensional and time-dependent modelling of co…
We discuss models that astrochemists have developed to study the chemical composition of the interstellar medium. These models aim at computing the evolution of the chemical composition of a mixture of gas and dust under as- trophysical…
The aim of this study is to investigate systematic chemical differentiation of molecules in regions of high mass star formation. We observed five prominent sites of high mass star formation in HCN, HNC, HCO+, their isotopes, C18O, C34S and…
The presence of numerous complex organic molecules (COMs; defined as those containing six or more atoms) around protostars shows that star formation is accompanied by an increase of molecular complexity. These COMs may be part of the…
Resolving physical and chemical structures in the vicinity of a protostar is of fundamental importance for elucidating their evolution to a planetary system. In this context, we have conducted 1.2 mm observations toward the low-mass…
We investigate the role of carbon monoxide ice in the chemical evolution of prestellar cores using astrochemical rate equation models. We constrain the ratios of the binding energies on CO ice and H$_{2}$O ice for a series of adsorbates…
Star-forming regions show a rich and varied chemistry, including the presence of complex organic molecules - both in the cold gas distributed on large scales, and in the hot regions close to young stars where protoplanetary disks arise.…
Low-mass dense cores represent the state of molecular gas associated with the earliest phases of low-mass star formation. Such cores are called "protostellar" or "starless," depending on whether they do or do not contain compact sources of…
We present molecular line observations made with the IRAM 30-m telescope of the immediate surroundings of a sample of 11 candidate high-mass protostars. These observations are part of an effort to clarify the evolutionary status of a set of…
The last decade has witnessed significant advances in our observational understanding of the earliest stages of low-mass star formation. The advent of sensitive receivers on large radio telescopes such as the JCMT and IRAM 30m MRT has led…
A magnetohydrodynamic model of a steady, transverse C-type shock in a dense molecular cloud is presented. A complete gas-grain chemical network is taken into account: the gas-phase chemistry, the adsorption of gas species on dust grains,…
(Abridged) We aim to enlarge the number of known hot corinos and carry out a first comparative study with hot cores. The ultimate goal is to understand whether complex organic molecules form in the gas phase or on grain surfaces, and what…
Icy grain mantles are commonly observed through infrared spectroscopy toward dense clouds, cloud cores, protostellar envelopes and protoplanetary disks. Up to 80% of the available oxygen, carbon and nitrogen are found in such ices; the most…
Star formation is a multi-scale problem, and only global simulations that account for the connection from the molecular cloud scale gas flow to the accreting protostar can reflect the observed complexity of protostellar systems.…
We recently reported a population of protostellar candidates in the 20 km s$^{-1}$ cloud in the Central Molecular Zone of the Milky Way, traced by H$_2$O masers in gravitationally bound dense cores. In this paper, we report…
The temperature and density structure of molecular cloud cores are the most important physical quantities that determine the course of the protostellar collapse and the properties of the stars they form. Nevertheless, density profiles often…
The main sulfur-bearing molecules OCS, H2S, SO, SO2, and CS have been observed in four high mass dense cores (W43-MM1, IRAS 18264, IRAS 05358, and IRAS 18162). Our goal is to put some constraints on the relative evolutionary stage of these…
We present maps of the column densities of H$_2$O, CO$_2$, and CO ices towards the molecular cores B~35A, DC~274.2-00.4, BHR~59, and DC~300.7-01.0. These ice maps, probing spatial distances in molecular cores as low as 2200~AU, challenge…
Low mass star-forming regions are more complex than the simple spherically symmetric approximation that is often assumed. We apply a more realistic infall/outflow physical model to molecular/continuum observations of three late Class 0…
Remote observations of comets, especially using high spectral resolution millimeter spectroscopy, have enabled the detection of over 25 molecules in comets for the last twenty years. Among the molecules identified at radio wavelengths,…
Our understanding of the physical and chemical structure of pre-stellar cores, the simplest star-forming sites, has significantly improved since the last IAU Symposium on Astrochemistry (South Korea, 1999). Research done over these years…