Related papers: Gas-phase recombination, grain neutralization and …
It is demonstrated that the ionization events in the vicinity of a small floating grain can increase the ion flux to its surface. In this respect the effect of electron impact ionization is fully analogous to that of the ion-neutral…
We have developed the first gas-grain chemical model for oxygen fractionation (also including sulphur fractionation) in dense molecular clouds, demonstrating that gas-phase chemistry generates variable oxygen fractionation levels, with a…
Supermassive stars born in pristine environments in the early Universe hold the promise of being the seeds for the supermassive black holes observed as high redshift quasars shortly after the epoch of reionisation. H$_2$ suppression is…
We present an SPH parameter study of the dynamical effect of photoionization from O--type stars on star--forming clouds of a range of masses and sizes during the time window before supernovae explode. Our model clouds all have the same…
Brown dwarfs and giant gas extrasolar planets have cold atmospheres with a rich chemical compositions from which mineral cloud particles form. Their properties, like particle sizes and material composition, vary with height, and the mineral…
Tiny grains such as PAHs have been thought to dramatically reduce the coupling between gas and magnetic fields in weakly ionized gas such as in protoplanetary disks (PPDs) because they provide tremendous surface area to recombine free…
Cold, neutral interstellar gas, the reservoir for star formation, is traced through the absorption of the 21-centimetre continuum radiation by neutral hydrogen (HI). Although detected in one hundred cases in the host galaxies of distant…
We study the column densities of neutral atomic, molecular, and warm ionized Galactic gas through their continuous absorption of extragalactic X-ray spectra at |b| > 25 degrees. For N(H,21cm) < 5x10^20 cm^-2 there is an extremely tight…
We consider the survival of solid H2 in the diffuse interstellar medium, with application to grains which are small enough to qualify as dust. Consideration of only the thermal aspects of this problem leads to the familiar conclusion that…
In an atmosphere, a cloud condensation region is characterized by a strong vertical gradient in the abundance of the related condensing species. On Earth, the ensuing gradient of mean molecular weight has relatively few dynamical…
Ionization-recombination balance in dense interstellar and circumstellar environments is a key factor for a variety of important physical processes, such as chemical reactions, dust charging and coagulation, coupling of the gas with…
An intriguing fact about cosmic gas clouds is that they all appear to have neutral (atomic) hydrogen column densities smaller than 10^{22} cm^{-2}. Observations of damped Ly-alpha (DLA) absorption systems further indicate that the maximum…
Ionization of gas-phase organic molecules such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) requires vacuum ultraviolet photons at wavelengths shorter than 200 nm (~6-9 eV). We present here for the first time that visible photons - accessible…
Cosmic rays pervade the Galaxy and are thought to be accelerated in supernova shocks. The interaction of cosmic rays with dense interstellar matter has two important effects: 1) high energy (>1 GeV) protons produce {\gamma}-rays by…
The Orion Nebula is the defining galactic HII Region, and has been well studied over a broad range of wavelengths. The gas-phase metallicity is 2/3 of solar, close to the star cluster. Grains survive throughout. The Trapezium cluster's…
We present astrochemical photo-dissociation region models in which cosmic ray attenuation has been fully coupled to the chemical evolution of the gas. We model the astrochemical impact of cosmic rays, including those accelerated by…
Observations have shown that continuous radio emission and also sporadic H-alpha and X-ray emission are prominent in singular, low-mass objects later than spectral class M. These activity signatures are interpreted as being caused by…
The standard treatment of cooling in Cold Dark Matter halos assumes that all of the gas within a ``cooling radius'' cools and contracts monolithically to fuel galaxy formation. Here we take into account the expectation that the hot gas in…
Understanding gas-grain chemistry of deuterium in star-forming objects may help to explain their history and present state. We aim to clarify how processes in ices affect the deuterium fractionation. In this regard, we investigate a…
We present an analysis of "bistability" in gas-phase chemical models of dark interstellar clouds. We identify the chemical mechanisms that allow high- and low-ionization solutions to the chemical rate-equations to coexist. We derive simple…