Upper limits on CH3OH in the HD 163296 protoplanetary disk - Evidence for a low gas-phase CH3OH-to-H2CO ratio

Context: Methanol (CH3OH) is at the root of organic ice chemistry in protoplanetary disks. Its connection to prebiotic chemistry and its role in the chemical environment of the disk midplane make it an important target for disk chemistry studies. However, its weak emission has made detections difficult. To date, gas-phase CH3OH is detected in only one Class II disk, TW Hya. Aims: We aim to constrain the methanol content of the HD 163296 protoplanetary disk. Methods: We used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to search for a total of four CH3OH emission lines in bands six and seven toward the disk around the young Herbig Ae star HD 163296. The disk-averaged column density of methanol and its related species formaldehyde (H2CO) were estimated assuming optically thin emission in local thermodynamic equilibrium. We compared these results to the gas-phase column densities of the TW Hya disk. Results: No targeted methanol lines were detected with Keplerian masking in the image plane nor with matched filter analysis in the uv plane individually nor after line stacking. The 3σ disk-integrated intensity upper limits are <51 mJy km s−1 for the band six lines and <26 mJy km s−1 for the band seven lines. The band seven lines provide the strictest 3σ upper limit on disk-averaged column density with Navg < 5.0 × 1011 cm−2 . The methanol-to-formaldehyde ratio is CH3 OH/H2 CO <0.24 in the HD 163296 disk compared to a ratio of 1.27 in the TW Hya disk. Conclusions: The HD 163296 protoplanetary disk is less abundant in methanol with respect to formaldehyde compared to the disk around TW Hya. Differences in the stellar irradiation in this Herbig Ae disk as compared to that of a disk around a T Tauri star likely influence the gaseous methanol and formaldehyde content. Possible reasons for the lower HD 163296 methanol-to-formaldehyde ratio include: a higher than expected gas-phase formation of H2CO in the HD 163296 disk, uncertainties in the grain surface formation efficiency of CH3OH and H2CO, and differences in the disk structure and/or CH3OH and H2CO desorption processes that drive the release of the molecules from ice mantles back into the gas phase. These results provide observational evidence that the gas-phase chemical complexity found in disks may be strongly influenced by the spectral type of the host star

The ALMA Protostellar Interferometric Line Survey (PILS): First results from an unbiased submillimeter wavelength line survey of the Class 0 protostellar binary IRAS 16293-2422 with ALMA

The inner regions of the envelopes surrounding young protostars are characterised by a complex chemistry, with prebiotic molecules present on the scales where protoplanetary disks eventually may form. This paper introduces a systematic survey, "Protostellar Interferometric Line Survey (PILS)" of the Class 0 protostellar binary IRAS 16293-2422 using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The survey covers the full frequency range from 329 to 363 GHz (0.8 mm) with additional targeted observations at 3.0 and 1.3 mm. More than 10,000 features are detected toward one component in the protostellar binary. Glycolaldehyde, its isomers, methyl formate and acetic acid, and its reduced alcohol, ethylene glycol, are clearly detected. For ethylene glycol both lowest state conformers, aGg' and gGg', are detected, the latter for the first time in the ISM. The abundance of glycolaldehyde is comparable to or slightly larger than that of ethylene glycol. In comparison to the Galactic Center, these two species are over-abundant relative to methanol, possibly an indication of formation at low temperatures in CO-rich ices. Both 13C and deuterated isotopologues of glycolaldehyde are detected, also for the first time ever in the ISM. For the deuterated species, a D/H ratio of approximately 5% is found with no differences between the deuteration in the different functional groups of glycolaldehyde. Measurements of the 13C-species lead to a 12C:13C ratio of approximately 30, lower than the typical ISM value. This low ratio may reflect an enhancement of 13CO in the ice due to either ion-molecule reactions in the gas before freeze-out or differences in the temperatures where 12CO and 13CO ices sublimate. The results reinforce the importance of low-temperature grain surface chemistry for the formation of prebiotic molecules seen here in the gas after sublimation of the entire ice mantle

The cometary composition of a protoplanetary disk as revealed by complex cyanides

Observations of comets and asteroids show that the Solar Nebula that spawned our planetary system was rich in water and organic molecules. Bombardment brought these organics to the young Earth's surface, seeding its early chemistry. Unlike asteroids, comets preserve a nearly pristine record of the Solar Nebula composition. The presence of cyanides in comets, including 0.01% of methyl cyanide (CH3CN) with respect to water, is of special interest because of the importance of C-N bonds for abiotic amino acid synthesis. Comet-like compositions of simple and complex volatiles are found in protostars, and can be readily explained by a combination of gas-phase chemistry to form e.g. HCN and an active ice-phase chemistry on grain surfaces that advances complexity[3]. Simple volatiles, including water and HCN, have been detected previously in Solar Nebula analogues - protoplanetary disks around young stars - indicating that they survive disk formation or are reformed in situ. It has been hitherto unclear whether the same holds for more complex organic molecules outside of the Solar Nebula, since recent observations show a dramatic change in the chemistry at the boundary between nascent envelopes and young disks due to accretion shocks[8]. Here we report the detection of CH3CN (and HCN and HC3N) in the protoplanetary disk around the young star MWC 480. We find abundance ratios of these N-bearing organics in the gas-phase similar to comets, which suggests an even higher relative abundance of complex cyanides in the disk ice. This implies that complex organics accompany simpler volatiles in protoplanetary disks, and that the rich organic chemistry of the Solar Nebula was not unique.Comment: Definitive version of the manuscript is published in Nature, 520, 7546, 198, 2015. This is the author's versio

When pedagogic worlds collide: Reflections on a pan-European entrepreneurship education project

Through the Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan launched in 2013, the European Commission set out its agenda for how entrepreneurship could help tackle the problems associated with the 2008 financial crisis. In this chapter we present how STARTIFY7, a project funded by the Commission’s Horizon 2020 initiative, sought to respond to the Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan. The STARTIFY7 project was created as a thematically focused and lean-training summer academy system with the aim of creating pan-European teams of young entrepreneurs in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector. The project and its underlying pedagogic approach, derived from Neck and Greene’s (2011) work on ‘worlds’ of entrepreneurship education, is discussed along with the outcomes achieved

Sustainable Business Model Ideation and Development of Early Ideas for Sustainable Business Models: Analyzing a New Tool Facilitating the Ideation Process

This chapter presents an early ideation tool, the Impact Canvas® (IC), that has been specifically designed to involve different kinds of stakeholders in the early stages of the business and research ideation process. The authors discuss how a tool can support the ideation process and how the IC tool has been designed to incorporate different elements for the development of sustainable and impactful ideas. The usefulness of the tool when cooperating in a multidisciplinary team is described. The authors report feedback from users of the tool that supports the perception of the user-friendliness and usefulness of the tool. The chapter concludes with a description of how the IC tool is being further developed to support a more multidisciplinary approach to research and business ideation.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Encouraging Entrepreneurial Competence Development in Italian University Students: Insights from the “Contamination Lab” Cases

This chapter aims to contribute to the debate related to entrepreneurship education (EE) within Italian universities. Specifically, it investigates the strategic role of the Italian Contamination Labs (CLabs) created inside some public universities and financed by the MIUR (Italian Ministry of University and Research) as innovative laboratories aimed at developing an entrepreneurial mindset, creativity, and innovation among the university students enrolled in the different degree programs. Through a cross-case study comparison of four Italian CLabs starting in North and South Italy from 2017, it presents the learning approaches and EE methodologies adopted to create an entrepreneurial awareness, mindset, and capability in students with different educational background. Findings demonstrate the crucial role of knowledge contamination in a permanent laboratory where business idea presentation, open innovation challenge, contamination workshop on specialized topics, enterprise projects, and business games are important vehicles for generating future student entrepreneurs and the achievement of the universities’ third mission aim. Implications for practices are delineated in terms of general recommendations that university should adopt according to the Quadruple Helix paradigm