Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
Oct 1994
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994a%26a...290..266s&link_type=abstract
Astronomy and Astrophysics 290, 266-278 (1994)
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
67
Dust, Extinction, Ism: Molecules, Molecular Processes, Ism: Abundances
Scientific paper
Two models of the time dependent chemical evolution of stable dense and translucent clouds are presented: one for pure gas phase chemistry and the other in which solid grain chemistry is included along with the gas. Comparing the results using these two schemes for the theoretical abundances of certain key molecules shows that including the dust provides a significantly (often by orders of magnitude) better agreement with the observations than those derived by pure gas phase chemistry models. The initial atomic abundances are those given by observations and are not modified to suit the model. Moreover, the inclusion of grain chemistry appears to minimize the effects of uncertainties in some important gas phase reaction rates, which would otherwise strongly affect the results of pure gas phase models. The grain mantle composition and gas phase abundances have been investigated using a number of different physical assumptions for both dense and translucent cloud models, taking into consideration the accretion, photochemical processing and desorption mechanisms involving the dust grains. The use of triggered explosive desorption is critical to providing reasonable steady state abundances. The abundances of H_2_O, H_2_CO, CH_3_OH and NH_3_ have a particular relevance because they are more abundantly produced in dust than in the gas. The most abundant observed molecules in grain mantles are H_2_O and CO which, under irradiation by ultraviolet light, not only produce H_2_CO but the latter can in turn react with water ice producing CH_3_OH. The reversible transformation between formaldehyde and methanol in the dust affects their gas phase abundances in both translucent and dense clouds. Depth dependent calculations have been performed and it is found that the effects of solid state photochemical molecular production in the inner part of a dense cloud are much larger than in the outer part or in a translucent cloud. In addition to matching observed gas phase abundances with theory we emphasize the constraint provided by the grain mantle composition.
Greenberg Mayo J.
Shalabiea Osama M.
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