Fragmentation of small carbon clusters, a review

An overview of the works devoted to fragmentation of small carbon clusters is given in a first part. Fragmentation of swift neutral and (multi) charged carbon clusters studied with the AGAT spectrometer is presented and discussed in a second part

Fragmentation branching ratios of highly excited hydrocarbon molecules CnH and their cations CnH+ (n<4)

We have measured fragmentation branching ratios of neutral CnH and CnH+ cations produced in high velocity (4.5 a.u) collisions between incident CnH+ cations and helium atoms. Electron capture gives rise to excited neutral species CnH and electronic excitation to excited cations CnH+. Thanks to a dedicated set-up, based on coincident detection of all fragments, the dissociation of the neutral and cationic parents were recorded separately and in a complete way. For the fragmentation of CnH, the H-loss channel is found to be dominant, as already observed by other authors. By contrast, the H-loss and C-loss channels equally dominate the two-fragment break up of CnH+ species. For these cations, we provide the first fragmentation data (n > 2). Results are also discussed in the context of astrochemistry

Breakdown curves of carbon-based molecules for astrochemistry

Breakdown curves (BDC), which are energy dependent fragmentation branching ratios, constitute a kind of "identity card" of an excited molecule or cluster. We developed a method for constructing semi-empirical BDC, based on fragmentation measurements and structural known quantities of the considered species. Calculations of BDC have been performed within the statistical M3C theory. We will present a comparison of the two methods for some species and discuss application of these results to astrochemistr

Study of key resonances in the 30P(p,γ)31S reaction in classical novae

Among reactions with strong impact on classical novae model predictions, 30P(p,γ)31S is one of the few remained that are worthy to be measured accurately, because of their rate uncertainty, as like as 18F(p,α)15O and 25Al(pγ)26Si. To reduce the nuclear uncertainties associated to this reaction, we performed an experiment at ALTO facility of Orsay using the 31P(3He,t)31S reaction to populate 31S excited states of astrophysical interest and detect in coincidence the protons coming from the decay of the populated states in order to extract the proton branching ratios. After a presentation of the astrophysical context of this work, the current situation of the 30P(p,γ)31S reaction rate will be discussed. Then the experiment set-up of this work and the analysis of the single events will be presented

A Kinetic Database For Astrochemistry (KIDA)

We present a novel chemical database for gas-phase astrochemistry. Named the KInetic Database for Astrochemistry (KIDA), this database consists of gas-phase reactions with rate coefficients and uncertainties that will be vetted to the greatest extent possible. Submissions of measured and calculated rate coefficients are welcome, and will be studied by experts before inclusion into the database. Besides providing kinetic information for the interstellar medium, KIDA is planned to contain such data for planetary atmospheres and for circumstellar envelopes. Each year, a subset of the reactions in the database (kida.uva) will be provided as a network for the simulation of the chemistry of dense interstellar clouds with temperatures between 10 K and 300 K. We also provide a code, named Nahoon, to study the time-dependent gas-phase chemistry of zero-dimensional and one-dimensional interstellar sources

Electron capture and ionization processes in high velocity Cn+, C-Ar and Cn+, C-He collisions

Single and double electron capture as well as projectile single and multiple ionization processes occurring in 125keV/u Cn+-He, Ar collisions have been studied experimentally and theoretically for 1 ≤ n ≤ 5. The Independent atom and electron (IAE) model has been used to describe the cluster-atom collision. The ion/atom-atom probabilities required for the IAE simulations have been determined by classical trajectory Monte Carlo (CTMC) and semiclassical atomic orbital close coupling (SCAOCC) calculations for the Ar and He targets respectively. In general the agreement between experiment and IAE simulations was good, with the exception of double electron capture leading to anionic C−n species

Coulomb explosion of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons induced by heavy cosmic rays: carbon chains production rates

International audienceThe interstellar medium contains both polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and cosmic rays. The frontal impact of a single heavy cosmic ray strips out many electrons. The highly charged species then relax by multi-fragmentation, potentially feeding the interstellar medium with hydrocarbon chains. We model both ionization(s) and fragmentation processes and compute the fragments production rates of particular interest for astrophysical models

Scaling Law for the Partitioning of Energy in Fragmenting Multicharged Carbon Clusters

The complete fragmentation of highly excited and multicharged Cnq+ clusters (n=5–10; q=2–4), produced in high velocity collisions of Cn+ with atoms, has been measured. Multiplicity distributions are presented and used to deduce, within a statistical framework, the partitioning of energy between the fragments' production and fragments' kinetic energy. This partitioning is found to scale as the charge over mass ratio of the cluster