Related papers: Gas-phase recombination, grain neutralization and …
Observations of H3+ in the Galactic diffuse interstellar medium (ISM) have led to various surprising results, including the conclusion that the cosmic-ray ionization rate (zeta_2) is about 1 order of magnitude larger than previously…
We present a model for the hydrogenation states of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the diffuse interstellar medium. First, we study the abundance of hydrogenation and charge states of PAHs due to photo-ionization,…
The ionization state of the gas plays a key role in the MHD of protoplanetary disks. However, the ionization state can depend on the gas dynamics, because electric fields induced by MHD turbulence can heat up plasmas and thereby affect the…
As long as magnetic fields remain frozen into the gas, the magnetic braking prevents the formation of protostellar discs. This condition is subordinate to the ionisation fraction characterising the inmost parts of a collapsing cloud. The…
It is proposed that the rapid observed homogeneous nucleation of ice dust in a cold, weakly-ionized plasma depends on the formation of hydroxide (OH$^-$) by fast electrons impacting water molecules. These OH$^{-}$ ions attract neutral water…
In cold core of dark molecular clouds, where the UV radiation from external sources is strongly attenuated, cosmic rays can induce chemical reactions on the surface of ice-covered grains promoting the ejection of the processed material to…
Context: Cosmic rays are present in almost all phases of the ISM. PAHs and cosmic rays represent an abundant and ubiquitous component of the interstellar medium. However, the interaction between them has never before been fully…
Carbon containing molecules in cold molecular clouds show various levels of isotopic fractionation through multiple observations. To understand such effects, we have developed a new gas-grain chemical model with updated 13C fractionation…
Nitrogen-bearing molecules display variable isotopic fractionation levels in different astronomical environments such as in the interstellar medium or in the Solar System. Models of interstellar chemistry are unable to induce nitrogen…
Direct collapse black holes (DCBHs) formed from the collapse of atomically-cooled primordial gas in the early Universe are strong candidates for the seeds of supermassive BHs. DCBHs are thought to form in atomic cooling haloes in the…
We investigate the formation of molecular hydrogen (H_2) in a primordial H+He gas cloud irradiated by a power-law UV flux. We find that at high densities (>1 cm^{-3}) and low temperatures (<10^4 K), the background radiation enhances the…
In experiments where ultraviolet light produces aerosols from trace amounts of ozone, sulphur dioxide, and water vapour, the number of additional small particles produced by ionization by gamma sources all grow up to diameters larger than…
We demonstrate that ionization of $\text{H}_2$ by dark matter in dense molecular clouds can provide strong constraints on the scattering strength of dark matter with electrons. Molecular clouds have high UV-optical attenuation, shielding…
The thermochemistry of H2 and HD in non-collapsed, non-reionized primordial gas up to the end of the dark age is investigated with recent radiation-matter and chemical reaction rates taking into account the efficient coolant HD, and the…
We revisit the problem of the growth of dense/cold gas in the cloud-crushing setup with radiative cooling. The relative motion between the dense cloud and the diffuse medium produces a turbulent boundary layer of mixed gas with a short…
In a low-metallicity gas, rapid cooling by dust thermal emission is considered to induce cloud fragmentation and play a vital role in the formation of low-mass stars (<~ 1 M_sun) in metal-poor environments. We investigate how the growth of…
Cosmic-rays constitute the main ionising and heating agent in dense, starless, molecular cloud cores. We reexamine the physical quantities necessary to determine the cosmic-ray ionisation rate (especially the cosmic ray spectrum at E < 1…
A novel type of particle "cooling", called Ionization Cooling, is applicable to slow (v of the order of 0.1c) ions stored in a small ring. The many traversals through a thin foil enhance the nuclear reaction probability, in a steady…
We produce cold and dense clouds of atomic ions (Ca$^+$, Dy$^+$) by laser ablation of metal targets and cryogenic buffer gas cooling of the resulting plasma. We measure the temperature and density of the ion clouds using laser absorption…
Cosmic rays are a fundamental source of ionization for molecular and diffuse clouds, influencing their chemical, thermal, and dynamical evolution. The amount of cosmic rays inside a cloud also determines the $\gamma$-ray flux produced by…