Context. Water is usually the main component of ice mantles, which cover the cores of dust grains in cold portions of dense interstellar clouds. When molecular hydrogen is adsorbed onto an icy mantle ...through physisorption, a common assumption in gas-grain rate-equation models is to use an adsorption energy for molecular hydrogen on a pure water substrate. However, at high density and low temperature, when H2 is efficiently adsorbed onto the mantle, its surface abundance can be strongly overestimated if this assumption is still used. Unfortunately, the more detailed microscopic Monte Carlo treatment cannot be used to study the abundance of H2 in ice mantles if a full gas-grain network is utilized. Aims. We present a numerical method adapted for rate-equation models that takes into account the possibility that an H2 molecule can, while diffusing on the surface, find itself bound to another hydrogen molecule, with a far weaker bond than the H2-water bond, which can lead to more efficient desorption. We label the ensuing desorption “encounter desorption”. Methods. The method is implemented first in a simple system consisting only of hydrogen molecules at steady state between gas and dust using the rate-equation approach and comparing the results with the results of a microscopic Monte Carlo calculation. We then discuss the use of the rate-equation approach with encounter desorption embedded in a complete gas-grain chemical network. Results. For the simple system, the rate-equation model with encounter desorption reproduces the H2 granular coverage computed by the microscopic Monte Carlo model at 10 K for a gas density from 104 to 1012 cm-3, and yields up to a factor 4 difference above 1012 cm-3. The H2 granular coverage is also reproduced by a complete gas-grain network. We use the rate-equation approach to study the gas-grain chemistry of cold dense regions with and without the encounter desorption mechanism. We find that the grain surface and gas phase species can be sensitive to the H2 coverage, up to several orders of magnitude, depending on the species, the density, and the time considered. Conclusions. The method is especially useful for dense and cold environments, and for time-dependent physical conditions, such as occur in the collapse of dense cores and the formation of protoplanetary disks. It is not significantly CPU time consuming, so can be used for example with complex 3D chemical-hydrodynamical simulations.
ABSTRACT The first hydrostatic core, also called the first Larson core, is one of the first steps in low-mass star formation as predicted by theory. With recent and future high-performance ...telescopes, the details of these first phases are becoming accessible, and observations may confirm theory and even present new challenges for theoreticians. In this context, from a theoretical point of view, we study the chemical and physical evolution of the collapse of prestellar cores until the formation of the first Larson core, in order to better characterize this early phase in the star formation process. We couple a state-of-the-art hydrodynamical model with full gas-grain chemistry, using different assumptions for the magnetic field strength and orientation. We extract the different components of each collapsing core (i.e., the central core, the outflow, the disk, the pseudodisk, and the envelope) to highlight their specific physical and chemical characteristics. Each component often presents a specific physical history, as well as a specific chemical evolution. From some species, the components can clearly be differentiated. The different core models can also be chemically differentiated. Our simulation suggests that some chemical species act as tracers of the different components of a collapsing prestellar dense core, and as tracers of the magnetic field characteristics of the core. From this result, we pinpoint promising key chemical species to be observed.
An outstanding question of astrobiology is the link between the chemical composition of planets, comets, and other solar system bodies and the molecules formed in the interstellar medium. ...Understanding the chemical and physical evolution of the matter leading to the formation of protoplanetary disks is an important step for this. We provide some new clues to this long-standing problem using three-dimensional chemical simulations of the early phases of disk formation: we interfaced the full gas-grain chemical model Nautilus with the radiation-magnetohydrodynamic model RAMSES, for different configurations and intensities of the magnetic field. Our results show that the chemical content (gas and ices) is globally conserved during the collapsing process, from the parent molecular cloud to the young disk surrounding the first Larson core. A qualitative comparison with cometary composition suggests that comets are constituted of different phases, some molecules being direct tracers of interstellar chemistry, while others, including complex molecules, seem to have been formed in disks, where higher densities and temperatures allow for an active grain surface chemistry. The latter phase, and its connection with the formation of the first Larson core, remains to be modeled.
Context. Dark cloud chemical models usually predict large amounts of O2, often above observational limits. Aims. We investigate the reason for this discrepancy from a theoretical point of view, ...inspired by the studies of Jenkins and Whittet on oxygen depletion. Methods. We use the gas-grain code Nautilus with an up-to-date gas-phase network to study the sensitivity of the molecular oxygen abundance to the oxygen elemental abundance. We use the rate coefficient for the reaction O + OH at 10 K recommended by the KIDA (KInetic Database for Astrochemistry) experts. Results. The updates of rate coefficients and branching ratios of the reactions of our gas-phase chemical network, especially N + CN and H\hbox{$_3^+$}+3 + O, have changed the model sensitivity to the oxygen elemental abundance. In addition, the gas-phase abundances calculated with our gas-grain model are less sensitive to the elemental C/O ratio than those computed with a pure gas-phase model. The grain surface chemistry plays the role of a buffer absorbing most of the extra carbon. Finally, to reproduce the low abundance of molecular oxygen observed in dark clouds at all times, we need an oxygen elemental abundance smaller than 1.6 × 10-4. Conclusions. The chemistry of molecular oxygen in dense clouds is quite sensitive to model parameters that are not necessarily well constrained. That O2 abundance may be sensitive to nitrogen chemistry is an indication of the complexity of interstellar chemistry.
Understanding water deuterium fractionation is important for constraining the mechanisms of water formation in interstellar clouds. Observations of HDO and H...O transitions were carried out towards ...the high-mass star-forming region G34.26+0.15 with the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared (HIFI) instrument onboard the Herschel Space Observatory, as well as with ground-based single-dish telescopes. 10 HDO lines and three H...O lines covering a broad range of upper energy levels (22-204 K) were detected. We used a non-local thermal equilibrium 1D analysis to determine the HDO/H2O ratio as a function of radius in the envelope. Models with different water abundance distributions were considered in order to reproduce the observed line profiles. The HDO/H2O ratio is found to be lower in the hot core (~3.5 x 10...-7.5 x 10...) than in the colder envelope (~1.0 x 10...-2.2 x 10...). This is the first time that a radial variation of the HDO/H2O ratio has been found to occur in a high-mass source. The chemical evolution of this source was modelled as a function of its radius and the observations are relatively well reproduced. The comparison between the chemical model and the observations leads to an age of ~10... yr after the infrared dark cloud stage. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
We investigate the water deuteration ratio and ortho-to-para nuclear spin ratio of H2 (OPR(H2)) during the formation and early evolution of a molecular cloud, following the scenario that accretion ...flows sweep and accumulate H i gas to form molecular clouds. We follow the physical evolution of post-shock materials using a one-dimensional shock model, combined with post-processing gas-ice chemistry simulations. This approach allows us to study the evolution of the OPR(H2) and water deuteration ratio without an arbitrary assumption of the initial molecular abundances, including the initial OPR(H2). When the conversion of hydrogen into H2 is almost complete the OPR(H2) is already much smaller than the statistical value of three because of the spin conversion in the gas phase. As the gas accumulates, the OPR(H2) decreases in a non-equilibrium manner. We find that water ice can be deuterium-poor at the end of its main formation stage in the cloud, compared to water vapor observed in the vicinity of low-mass protostars where water ice is sublimated. If this is the case, the enrichment of deuterium in water should mostly occur at somewhat later evolutionary stages of star formation, i.e., cold prestellar/protostellar cores. The main mechanism to suppress water ice deuteration in the cloud is the cycle of photodissociation and reformation of water ice, which efficiently removes deuterium from water ice chemistry. The removal efficiency depends on the main formation pathway of water ice. The OPR(H2) plays a minor role in water ice deuteration at the main formation stage of water ice.
Many chemical models of dense interstellar clouds predict that the majority of gas-phase elemental nitrogen should be present as N ₂, with an abundance approximately five orders of magnitude less ...than that of hydrogen. As a homonuclear diatomic molecule, N ₂ is difficult to detect spectroscopically through infrared or millimeter-wavelength transitions. Therefore, its abundance is often inferred indirectly through its reaction product N ₂H ⁺. Two main formation mechanisms, each involving two radical-radical reactions, are the source of N ₂ in such environments. Here we report measurements of the low temperature rate constants for one of these processes, the N + CN reaction, down to 56 K. The measured rate constants for this reaction, and those recently determined for two other reactions implicated in N ₂ formation, are tested using a gas-grain model employing a critically evaluated chemical network. We show that the amount of interstellar nitrogen present as N ₂ depends on the competition between its gas-phase formation and the depletion of atomic nitrogen onto grains. As the reactions controlling N ₂ formation are inefficient, we argue that N ₂ does not represent the main reservoir species for interstellar nitrogen. Instead, elevated abundances of more labile forms of nitrogen such as NH ₃ should be present on interstellar ices, promoting the eventual formation of nitrogen-bearing organic molecules.
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