Related papers: Discovery of Interstellar CF+
The transition between atomic and molecular hydrogen is associated with important changes in the structure of interstellar clouds, and marks the beginning of interstellar chemistry. Because of the relatively simple networks controlling…
The chemistry of the diffuse interstellar medium is driven by the combined influences of cosmic rays, ultraviolet (UV) radiation, and turbulence. Previously detected at the outer edges of photodissociation regions (PDRs) and formed from the…
The formation of CH+ in the interstellar medium has long been an outstanding problem in chemical models. In order to probe the physical conditions of the ISM in which CH+ forms, we propose the use of CH3+ observations. The pathway to…
Most stars in the Galaxy, including the Sun, were born in high-mass star-forming regions. It is hence important to study the chemical processes in these regions to better understand the chemical heritage of both the Solar System and most…
The CH$^+$ ion is a key species in the initial steps of interstellar carbon chemistry. Its formation in diverse environments where it is observed is not well understood, however, because the main production pathway is so endothermic (4280…
The sheer interstellar abundance of helium makes any bound molecules or complexes containing it of potential interest for astrophysical observation. This work utilizes high-level and trusted quantum chemical techniques to predict the…
The presence of H3+ in the interstellar medium was forecast almost four decades ago. Almost three decades ago it was asserted that its reactions with neutral molecular and atomic species directly lead to the production of many of the…
The H3+ ion plays a key role in the chemistry of dense interstellar gas clouds where stars and planets are forming. The low temperatures and high extinctions of such clouds make direct observations of H3+ impossible, but lead to large…
The clumpy density structure of photon-dominated regions is well established, but the physical properties of the clumps and of the surrounding interclump medium are only approximately known. The aim of this paper is to constrain the…
We report on the detection of calcium isocyanide, CaNC, in the carbon-rich evolved star IRC+10216. We derived a column density for this species of (2.0$\pm$0.5)$\times$10$^{11}$ cm$^{-2}$. Based on the observed line profiles and the…
Fluorine (19F) abundances (or upper limits) are derived in six extragalactic AGB carbon stars from the HF(1-0) R9 line at 2.3358 mu in high resolution spectra. The stars belong to the Local Group galaxies LMC, SMC and Carina dwarf…
Observations of CO+ suggest column densities on the order 10^12 cm^-2 that can not be reproduced by many chemical models. CO+ is more likely to be destroyed than excited in collisions with hydrogen. An anomalous excitation mechanism may…
The fluorine abundance of the Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor (CEMP) star HE 1305+0132 has been derived by analysis of the molecular HF (1-0) R9 line at 2.3357 microns in a high-resolution (R = 50,000) spectrum obtained with the Phoenix…
Hydrogen fluoride has been established to be an excellent tracer of molecular hydrogen in diffuse clouds. In denser environments, however, the HF abundance has been shown to be approximately two orders of magnitude lower. We present…
We have revisited the chemistry of chlorine-bearing species in the diffuse interstellar medium with new observations of the HCl$^+$ molecular ion and new astrochemical models. Using the GREAT instrument on board SOFIA, we observed the…
In spite of many observational efforts aiming to characterize the chemical evolution of our Galaxy, not much is known about the origin of fluorine (F). Models suggest that the F found in the Galaxy might have been produced mainly in three…
High quality archival spectra of interstellar absorption from C I toward 9 stars, taken with the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope, were analyzed. Our sample was supplemented by two sight lines, 23 Ori and…
We present analytic theory for the total column density of singly ionized carbon (C+) in the optically thick photon dominated regions (PDRs) of far-UV irradiated (star-forming) molecular clouds. We derive a simple formula for the C+ column…
Revised spectroscopic parameters for the HF molecule and a new CN line list in the 2.3 mu region have been recently available, allowing a revision of the F content in AGB stars. AGB carbon stars are the only observationally confirmed…
The formyl cation (HCO+) is one of the most abundant ions in molecular clouds and plays a major role in the interstellar chemistry. For this reason, accurate collisional rate coefficients for the rotational excitation of HCO+ and its…