Related papers: Comparing gas-phase and grain-catalyzed H2 formati…
The recombination of hydrogen in the interstellar medium, taking place on surfaces of microscopic dust grains, is an essential process in the evolution of chemical complexity in interstellar clouds. The H_2 formation process has been…
Context: Molecular hydrogen ($\rm{H_2}$) is crucial in galaxy formation and evolution, serving as the main fuel for star formation (SF). In metal-enriched environments, $\rm{H_2}$ primarily forms on interstellar dust grain surfaces.…
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…
Context. The presence of dust in the interstellar medium has profound consequences on the chemical composition of regions where stars are forming. Recent observations show that many species formed onto dust are populating the gas phase,…
Cosmic gas makes up about 90% of baryonic matter in the Universe and H$_2$ is the closest molecule to star formation. In this work we study cold neutral gas and its H$_2$ component at different epochs, exploiting state-of-the-art…
Unlike gas-phase reactions, chemical reactions taking place on interstellar dust grain surfaces cannot always be modeled by rate equations. Due to the small grain sizes and low flux,these reactions may exhibit large fluctuations and thus…
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…
During the evolution of diffuse clouds to molecular clouds, gas-phase molecules freeze out on surfaces of small dust particles to form ices. On dust surfaces, water is the main constituent of the icy mantle in which a complex chemistry is…
We present a detailed description of a phenomenological H2 formation model and local star formation prescription based on the density of molecular (rather than total) gas. Such approach allows us to avoid the arbitrary density and…
Dust plays an important role in the evolution of a galaxy, since it is one of the main ingredients for efficient star formation. Dust grains are also a sink/source of metals when they are created/destroyed, and, therefore, a self-consistent…
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,…
Context. The formation of water on the dust grains in the interstellar medium may proceed with hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as an intermediate. Recently gas-phase H2O2 has been detected in {\rho} Oph A with an abundance of ~1E-10 relative to…
The formation of molecular hydrogen in the interstellar medium takes place on the surfaces of dust grains. Hydrogen molecules play a role in gas-phase reactions that produce other molecules, some of which serve as coolants during…
Hydrogen sulfide (H$_2$S) is thought to be efficiently formed on grain surfaces through the successive hydrogenation of S atoms. Its non-detection so far in astronomical observations of icy dust mantles thus indicates that effective…
Gas-phase processes were long thought to be the key formation mechanisms for complex organic molecules in star-forming regions. However, recent experimental and theoretical evidence has cast doubt on the efficiency of such processes.…
We study molecular hydrogen formation in and on solids. We construct a model with surface sites and bulk sites capable of describing (1) the motion and exchange of H and H_2 between surface and bulk, (2) the recombination of H and…
At low temperatures, the main coolant in primordial gas is molecular hydrogen, H2. Recent work has shown that primordial gas that is not collapsing gravitationally but is cooling from an initially ionized state forms hydrogen deuteride, HD,…
Observations of molecular clouds in metal-poor environments typically find that they have much higher star formation rates than one would expect based on their observed CO luminosities and the molecular gas masses that are inferred from…
Molecular hydrogen is the most abundant molecule in the Universe. It is thought that a large portion of H2 forms by association of hydrogen atoms to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). We model the influence of PAHs on total H2…
Stars in galaxies form in giant molecular clouds that coalesce when the atomic hydrogen is converted into molecules. There are currently two dominant models for what property of the galactic disk determines its molecular fraction: either…