Elemental nitrogen partitioning in dense interstellar clouds

Many chemical models of dense interstellar clouds predict that the majority of gas-phase elemental nitrogen should be present as N2, with an abundance approximately five orders of magnitude less than that of hydrogen. As a homonuclear diatomic molecule, N2 is difficult to detect spectroscopically through infrared or millimetre-wavelength transitions so its abundance is often inferred indirectly through its reaction product N2H+. Two main formation mechanisms each involving two radical-radical reactions are the source of N2 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 effect of the measured rate constants for this reaction and those recently determined for two other reactions implicated in N2 formation are tested using a gas-grain model employing a critically evaluated chemical network. We show that the amount of interstellar nitrogen present as N2 depends on the competition between its gas-phase formation and the depletion of atomic nitrogen onto grains. As the reactions controlling N2 formation are inefficient, we argue that N2 does not represent the main reservoir species for interstellar nitrogen. Instead, elevated abundances of more labile forms of nitrogen such as NH3 should be present on interstellar ices, promoting the eventual formation of nitrogen-bearing organic molecules.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America - published online since June 11, 201

Multi-line detection of O2 toward rho Oph A

Models of pure gas-phase chemistry in well-shielded regions of molecular clouds predict relatively high levels of molecular oxygen, O2, and water, H2O. Contrary to expectation, the space missions SWAS and Odin found only very small amounts of water vapour and essentially no O2 in the dense star-forming interstellar medium. Only toward rho Oph A did Odin detect a weak line of O2 at 119 GHz in a beam size of 10 arcmin. A larger telescope aperture such as that of the Herschel Space Observatory is required to resolve the O2 emission and to pinpoint its origin. We use the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared aboard Herschel to obtain high resolution O2 spectra toward selected positions in rho Oph A. These data are analysed using standard techniques for O2 excitation and compared to recent PDR-like chemical cloud models. The 487.2GHz line was clearly detected toward all three observed positions in rho Oph A. In addition, an oversampled map of the 773.8GHz transition revealed the detection of the line in only half of the observed area. Based on their ratios, the temperature of the O2 emitting gas appears to vary quite substantially, with warm gas (> 50 K) adjacent to a much colder region, where temperatures are below 30 K. The exploited models predict O2 column densities to be sensitive to the prevailing dust temperatures, but rather insensitive to the temperatures of the gas. In agreement with these model, the observationally determined O2 column densities seem not to depend strongly on the derived gas temperatures, but fall into the range N(O2) = (3 to >6)e15/cm^2. Beam averaged O2 abundances are about 5e-8 relative to H2. Combining the HIFI data with earlier Odin observations yields a source size at 119 GHz of about 4 - 5 arcmin, encompassing the entire rho Oph A core.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures intended for publication in A&

Chemical and physical characterization of the first stages of protoplanetary disk formation

Les étoiles de type solaire se forment par l'effondrement d'un nuage moléculaire, durant lequel la matière s'organise autour de l'étoile en formation sous la forme d'un disque, appelé disque protoplanétaire. Dans ce disque se forment les planètes, comètes et autres objets du système stellaire. La nature de ces objets peut donc avoir un lien avec l'histoire de la matière du disque.J'ai étudié l'évolution chimique et physique de cette matière, du nuage au disque, à l'aide du code de chimie gaz-grain Nautilus.Une étude de sensibilité à divers paramètres du modèle (comme les abondances élémentaires et les paramètres de chimie de surface) a été réalisée. Notamment, la mise à jour des constantes de vitesse et des rapports de branchement des réactions de notre réseau chimique s'est avérée influente sur de nombreux points, comme les abondances de certaines espèces chimiques, et la sensibilité du modèle à ses autres paramètres.Plusieurs modèles physiques d'effondrement ont également été considérés. L'approche la plus complexe et la plus consistante a été d'interfacer notre code de chimie avec le code radiatif magnétohydrodynamique de formation stellaire RAMSES, pour modéliser en trois dimensions l'évolution physique et chimique de la formation d'un jeune disque. Notre étude a démontré que le disque garde une trace de l'histoire passée de la matière, et sa composition chimique est donc sensible aux conditions initiales.Low mass stars, like our Sun, are born from the collapse of a molecular cloud. The matter falls in the center of the cloud, creating a protoplanetary disk surrounding a protostar. Planets and other solar system bodies will be formed in the disk.The chemical composition of the interstellar matter and its evolution during the formation of the disk are important to better understand the formation process of these objects.I studied the chemical and physical evolution of this matter, from the cloud to the disk, using the chemical gas-grain code Nautilus.A sensitivity study to some parameters of the code (such as elemental abundances and parameters of grain surface chemistry) has been done. More particularly, the updates of rate coefficients and branching ratios of the reactions of our chemical network showed their importance, such as on the abundances of some chemical species, and on the code sensitivity to others parameters.Several physical models of collapsing dense core have also been considered. The more complex and solid approach has been to interface our chemical code with the radiation-magneto-hydrodynamic model of stellar formation RAMSES, in order to model in three dimensions the physical and chemical evolution of a young disk formation. Our study showed that the disk keeps imprints of the past history of the matter, and so its chemical composition is sensitive to the initial conditions

Caractérisation physico-chimique des premières phases de formation des disques protoplanétaires

Low mass stars, like our Sun, are born from the collapse of a molecular cloud. The matter falls in the center of the cloud, creating a protoplanetary disk surrounding a protostar. Planets and other solar system bodies will be formed in the disk.The chemical composition of the interstellar matter and its evolution during the formation of the disk are important to better understand the formation process of these objects.I studied the chemical and physical evolution of this matter, from the cloud to the disk, using the chemical gas-grain code Nautilus.A sensitivity study to some parameters of the code (such as elemental abundances and parameters of grain surface chemistry) has been done. More particularly, the updates of rate coefficients and branching ratios of the reactions of our chemical network showed their importance, such as on the abundances of some chemical species, and on the code sensitivity to others parameters.Several physical models of collapsing dense core have also been considered. The more complex and solid approach has been to interface our chemical code with the radiation-magneto-hydrodynamic model of stellar formation RAMSES, in order to model in three dimensions the physical and chemical evolution of a young disk formation. Our study showed that the disk keeps imprints of the past history of the matter, and so its chemical composition is sensitive to the initial conditions.Les étoiles de type solaire se forment par l'effondrement d'un nuage moléculaire, durant lequel la matière s'organise autour de l'étoile en formation sous la forme d'un disque, appelé disque protoplanétaire. Dans ce disque se forment les planètes, comètes et autres objets du système stellaire. La nature de ces objets peut donc avoir un lien avec l'histoire de la matière du disque.J'ai étudié l'évolution chimique et physique de cette matière, du nuage au disque, à l'aide du code de chimie gaz-grain Nautilus.Une étude de sensibilité à divers paramètres du modèle (comme les abondances élémentaires et les paramètres de chimie de surface) a été réalisée. Notamment, la mise à jour des constantes de vitesse et des rapports de branchement des réactions de notre réseau chimique s'est avérée influente sur de nombreux points, comme les abondances de certaines espèces chimiques, et la sensibilité du modèle à ses autres paramètres.Plusieurs modèles physiques d'effondrement ont également été considérés. L'approche la plus complexe et la plus consistante a été d'interfacer notre code de chimie avec le code radiatif magnétohydrodynamique de formation stellaire RAMSES, pour modéliser en trois dimensions l'évolution physique et chimique de la formation d'un jeune disque. Notre étude a démontré que le disque garde une trace de l'histoire passée de la matière, et sa composition chimique est donc sensible aux conditions initiales

Chemical Characterization of the First Stages of Protoplanetary Disk Formation

Low mass stars, like our Sun, are born from the collapse of a molecular cloud, which is composed of interstellar matter. This matter (gas and grain) falls in the center of the cloud, creating a protostar and a protoplanetary disk. Planets and other solar system bodies will be formed in the disk, so the chemical composition of the interstellar matter and its evolution during the formation of the disk are important to better understand the formation process of these objects. We study the disk chemistry using the gas-grain code Nautilus (Hersant et al. 2009) developed at the Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux, based on the models from the Ohio State University (Eric Herbst's team). The change in physical conditions during the formation of disk is not well constrained (by observations or theory) up to now. We thus assume several scenarii for the possible thermal and density history of the gas and dust during the formation of the disk, partly based on Visser et al. (2009). One goal is to understand the importance of initial conditions for disk chemistry and to quantify the fraction of the parent cloud material that survives the disk formation. Our first results show that the disk chemical evolution will depend on the initial conditions (parent cloud composition). Changing for instance the age (104 to 106 yr) of the initial molecular cloud can modify by several orders of magnitude the chemical composition of ice mantles (CH_3OH, CH_3OCH_3, H_2CO, H_2O_2, H_2S...) in a 105 yr old protoplanetary disk

Water deuteration and ortho-to-para nuclear spin ratio of H2 in molecular clouds formed via the accumulation of H I gas

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 

Oxygen depletion in dense molecular clouds: a clue to a low O2 abundance?

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