Related papers: H-D Substitution in Interstellar Solid Methanol: A…
The deuterium enrichment in molecules in dark molecular cloud cores and starforming regions is usually attributed to gas-phase chemistry. Here we examine the effects of surface and mantle chemical reactions on the deuteration of species. We…
Methyl acetate (CH_3COOCH_3) has been recently observed by IRAM 30 m radio telescope in Orion though the presence of its deuterated isotopomers is yet to be confirmed. We therefore study the properties of various forms of methyl acetate,…
The relative abundance of deuterium and hydrogen is a potent tracer of planet formation and evolution. Jupiter and Saturn have protosolar atmospheric D/H ratios, a relic of substantial gas accretion from the nebula, while the atmospheres of…
We examine galactic chemical evolution models which reproduce the present-day and pre-solar values of deuterium starting with a primordial value which is consistent with a baryon-to-photon ratio of $3 \times 10^{-10}$. We consider various…
High-mass stars are expected to form from dense prestellar cores. Their precise formation conditions are widely discussed, including their virial condition, which results in slow collapse for super-virial cores with strong support by…
Two groups have independently reported the possible detection of extragalactic deuterium in the absorption spectrum of the same high redshift, low metalicity QSO. Although the high value for the inferred deuterium abundance poses no…
We present our measurements of the deuterium to hydrogen ratio (D/H) in QSO absorption systems, which give D/H = 3.40 $\pm 0.25 \times 10^{-5}$ based on analysis of four independent systems. We discuss the properties of two systems which…
Radioastronomical observations have recently discovered PAHs of moderate size (up to 24 carbon atoms) in cold dark clouds, although it is currently unknown whether they are formed in situ through a bottom-up mechanism or from larger PAHs…
The deuterium-to-hydrogen (D/H or 2H/1H) ratio of Martian atmospheric water (~6x standard mean ocean water, SMOW) is higher than that of known sources, requiring planetary enrichment. A recent measurement by NASA's Mars Science Laboratory…
Context: In the last years, the H2D+ and D2H+ molecules have gained great attention as probes of cold and depleted dense molecular cloud cores. These ions are at the basis of molecular deuterium fractionation, a common characteristic…
An ever growing number of observational and theoretical evidence suggests that the deuterated fraction (column density ratio between a species containing D and its hydrogenated counterpart, Dfrac) is an evolutionary indicator both in the…
Methanol is a common component of interstellar and circumstellar ice mantles and is often used as an evolution indicator in star-forming regions. The observations of gas-phase methanol in the interiors of dense molecular clouds at…
Dimethyl ether is one of the most abundant interstellar complex organic molecules. Yet its formation route remains elusive. In this work, we have performed electronic structure and kinetics calculations to derive the rate coefficients for…
Deuteration is a crucial tool to understand the complexity of interstellar chemical processes, especially when they involve the interplay of gas-phase and grain-surface chemistry. In the case of multiple deuteration, comparing observation…
Recent HST/GHRS observations of the z = 0.7010 absorber toward the QSO 1718+4807 (selected because of apparently ideal characteristics for measuring D/H) yield a D/H significantly higher D/H than some recent high-redshift measurements. Our…
We present ground-based 2.1 to 4.2 microns observations of four low-mass protostars. We searched for the 4.1 microns OD stretch band, characteristic of solid HDO in grain mantles. We did not detect solid HDO in any of the four sources, but…
The adsorption energies and orientation of methanol on graphene are determined from first-principles density functional calculations. We employ the well-tested vdW-DF method that seamlessly includes dispersion interactions with all of the…
The aim of the presented work is to analyze the impact of experimentally evaluated reactions of hydrogen abstraction on surfaces of interstellar grains on the chemical evolution of methanol and its precursors on grains and in the gas phase…
We present FUSE observations of the line of sight to WD0439+466 (LS V +46 21), the central star of the old planetary nebula Sh2-216. The FUSE data shows absorption by many interstellar and stellar lines, in particular D I, H2 (J = 0 - 9),…
Disentangling the different stages of the star-formation process, in particular in the high-mass regime, is a challenge in astrophysics. Chemical clocks could help alleviating this problem, but their evolution strongly depends on many…