Related papers: Comparing gas-phase and grain-catalyzed H2 formati…
The path to understanding star formation processes begins with the study of the formation of molecular clouds. The outskirts of these clouds are characterized by low column densities that allow the penetration of ultraviolet radiation,…
Molecular hydrogen is the most abundant molecule in the universe. It is the first one to form and survive photo-dissociation in tenuous environments. Its formation involves catalytic reactions on the surface of interstellar grains. The…
In the currently-accepted model for star formation out of the interstellar gas in galaxies, the basic construction material is assumed to be large clouds of atomic hydrogen (HI). These clouds are thought to form higher-density complexes of…
I examine the possibility that the Cold Neutral Medium of the interstellar medium in galaxies contains a molecular gas phase that may represent a significant and even the dominant amount of its mass in metal-poor regions. In spiral galaxies…
We investigate the condition for the formation of low-mass second-generation stars in the early universe. It has been proposed that gas cooling by dust thermal emission can trigger fragmentation of a low-metallicity star-forming gas cloud.…
We aim at understanding the formation of cloud layers in quasi-static substellar atmospheres. The time-dependent description presented in (Helling & Woitke 2006) is a kinetic model describing nucleation, growth and evaporation. It is…
The formation of deuterated molecules is favoured at low temperatures and high densities. Therefore, the deuteration fraction D$_{frac}$ is expected to be enhanced in cold, dense prestellar cores and to decrease after protostellar birth.…
FIR and submm observations have established the fundamental role of dust-obscured star formation in the assembly of stellar mass over the past 12 billion years. At z between 2 and 4, the bulk of star formation is enshrouded in dust, and…
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…
In order to interpret H2 (molecular hydrogen) quasar absorption line observations of damped Ly-alpha systems (DLAs) and sub-DLAs, we model their H2 abundance as a function of dust-to-gas ratio, including H2 self-shielding and dust…
We investigate the molecular evolution and D/H abundance ratios that develop as star formation proceeds from a dense-cloud core to a protostellar core, by solving a gas-grain reaction network applied to a 1-D radiative hydrodynamic model…
An analysis of the kinetics of H2 formation on interstellar dust grains is presented using rate equations. It is shown that semi-empirical expressions that appeared in the literature represent two different physical regimes. In particular,…
H2D+ is a primary ion which dominates the gas-phase chemistry of cold dense gas. Therefore it is hailed as a unique tool in probing the earliest, prestellar phase of star formation. Observationally, its abundance and distribution is however…
Context. The photolysis of hydrogenated amorphous carbon, a-C(:H), dust by UV photon-irradiation in the laboratory leads to the release of H2 as well as other molecules and radicals. This same process is also likely to be important in the…
Star formation occurs in dark molecular regions where the number density of hydrogen nuclei, nH, exceeds 10^4 cc and the fractional ionization is 10^-7 or less. Dust grains with sizes ranging up to tenths of microns and perhaps down to tens…
We calculate the formation of dust clouds in atmospheres of giant gas-planets. The chemical structure and the evolution of the grain size distribution in the dust cloud layer is discussed based on a consistent treatment of seed formation,…
We study the connection of star formation to atomic (HI) and molecular hydrogen (H$_2$) in isolated, low metallicity dwarf galaxies with high-resolution ($m_{\rm gas}$ = 4 M$_\odot$, $N_{\rm ngb}$ = 100) SPH simulations. The model includes…
There are two major theoretical issues for the star formation law (the relation between the surface densities of molecular gas and star formation rate on a galaxy scale): (i) At low metallicity, it is not obvious that star-forming regions…
Condensation processes, which are responsible for the main chemical differences between gas and solids in the Galaxy, are the major mechanisms that control the cycle of dust from evolved stars to planetary systems. However, they are still…
Molecular hydrogen (H2) is the primary component of the reservoirs of cold, dense gas that fuel star formation in our galaxy. While the H2 abundance is ultimately regulated by physical processes operating on small scales in the interstellar…