18
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      On Cosmic Ray-Driven Grain Chemistry in Cold Core Models

      Preprint

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          In this paper, we present preliminary results illustrating the effect of cosmic rays on solid-phase chemistry in models of both TMC-1 and several sources with physical conditions identical to TMC-1 except for hypothetically enhanced ionization rates. Using a recent theory for the addition of cosmic ray-induced reactions to astrochemical models, we calculated the radiochemical yields, called \(G\) values, for the primary dust grain ice-mantle constituents. We show that the inclusion of this non-thermal chemistry can lead to the formation of complex organic molecules from simpler ice-mantle constituents, even under cold core conditions. In addition to enriching ice-mantles, we find that these new radiation-chemical processes can lead to increased gas-phase abundances as well, particularly for HOCO, NO\(_2\), HC\(_2\)O, methyl formate (HCOOCH\(_3\)), and ethanol (CH\(_3\)CH\(_2\)OH). These model results imply that HOCO - and perhaps NO\(_2\) - might be observable in TMC-1. Future detections of either of these two species in cold interstellar environments could provide strong support for the importance of cosmic ray-driven radiation chemistry. The increased gas-phase abundance of methyl formate can be compared with abundances achieved through other formation mechanisms such as pure gas-phase chemistry and three-body surface reactions.

          Related collections

          Most cited references2

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: not found
          • Article: not found

          The Formation and Depletion of Molecules in Dense Interstellar Clouds

            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: not found
            • Article: not found

            Energetic Charged-Particle Interactions with Atmospheres and Surfaces

              Bookmark

              Author and article information

              Journal
              15 May 2018
              Article
              1805.05764
              5cd73b9c-8c7b-443a-baf8-ac6ca5e6a13d

              http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/

              History
              Custom metadata
              ApJ, accepted
              astro-ph.GA

              Galaxy astrophysics
              Galaxy astrophysics

              Comments

              Comment on this article