Mohamed Jorfi

Revealing atom-radical reactivity at low temperature through the N + OH reaction.

Rates have been measured for a chemical transformation of interstellar interest in which both reagents are unstable. More than 100 reactions between stable molecules and free radicals have been shown to remain rapid at low temperatures. In contrast, reactions between two unstable radicals have received much less attention due to the added complexity of producing and measuring excess radical concentrations. We performed kinetic experiments on the barrierless N(4S) + OH(2Π) → H(2S) + NO(2Π) reaction in a supersonic flow (Laval nozzle) reactor. We used a microwave-discharge method to generate atomic nitrogen and a relative-rate method to follow the reaction kinetics. The measured rates agreed well with the results of exact and approximate quantum mechanical calculations. These results also provide insight into the gas-phase formation mechanisms of molecular nitrogen in interstellar clouds.

Ortho-H2 and the age of prestellar cores

Prestellar cores form from the contraction of cold gas and dust material in dark clouds before they collapse to form protostars. Several concurrent theories exist to describe this contraction but they are currently difficult to distinguish. One major difference is the timescale involved in forming the prestellar cores: some theories advocate nearly free-fall speed via, e.g., rapid turbulence decay, while others can accommodate much longer periods to let the gas accumulate via, e.g., ambipolar diffusion. To tell the difference between these theories, measuring the age of prestellar cores could greatly help. However, no reliable clock currently exists. We present a simple chemical clock based on the regulation of the deuteration by the abundance of ortho‐H2 that slowly decays away from the ortho-para statistical ratio of 3 down to or less than 0.001. We use a chemical network fully coupled to a hydrodynamical model that follows the contraction of a cloud, starting from uniform density, and reaches a density profile typical of a prestellar core. We compute the N2D + /N2H + ratioalong the density profile. The disappearance of ortho-H2 is tied tothe duration of the contraction and the N2D + /N2H + ratio increases in the wake of the ortho-H2 abundance decrease. By adjusting the time of contraction, we obtain different deuteration profiles that we can compare to the observations. Our model can test fast contractions (from 10 4 to 10 6 cm −3 in ∼0.5 My) and slow contractions (from 10 4 to 10 6 cm −3 in ∼5 My). We have tested the sensitivity of the models to various initial conditions. The slowcontraction deuteration profile is approximately insensitive to these variations, while the fast-contraction deuteration profile shows significant variations. We found that, in all cases, the deuteration profile remains clearly distinguishable whether it comes from the fast collapse or the slow collapse. We also study the para-D2H + /ortho-H2D + ratio and find that its variation is not monotonic, so it does not discriminate between models. Applying this model to L183 (=L134N), we find that the N2D + /N2H + ratio would be higher than unity for evolutionary timescales of a few megayears independently of other parameters, such as cosmic ray ionization rate or grain size (within reasonable ranges). A good fit to the observations is only obtained for fast contraction (≤0.7 My from the beginning of the contraction and ≤4 My from the birth of the molecular cloud based on the need to keep a high ortho-H2 abundance when the contraction starts ‐ ortho-H2/para-H2 ≥ 0.2 ‐ to match the observations). This chemical clock therefore rules out slow contraction in L183 and steady-state chemical models, since steady state is clearly not reached here. This clock should be applied to other cores to help distinguish slow and fast contraction theories over a large sample of cases.

H2, H3+ and the age of molecular clouds and prestellar cores

Measuring the age of molecular clouds and prestellar cores is a difficult task that has not yet been successfully accomplished although the information is of paramount importance to help in understanding and discriminating between different formation scenarios. Most chemical clocks suffer from unknown initial conditions and are therefore difficult to use. We propose a new approach based on a subset of deuterium chemistry that takes place in the gas phase and for which initial conditions are relatively well known. It relies primarily on the conversion of H3+ into H2D+ to initiate deuterium enrichment of the molecular gas. This conversion is controlled by the ortho/para ratio of H2 that is thought to be produced with the statistical ratio of 3 and subsequently slowly decays to an almost pure para-H2 phase. This slow decay takes approximately 1 Myr and allows us to set an upper limit on the age of molecular clouds. The deuterium enrichment of the core takes longer to reach equilibrium and allows us to estimate the time necessary to form a dense prestellar core, i.e. the last step before the collapse of the core into a protostar. We find that the observed abundance and distribution of DCO+ and N2D+ argue against quasi-static core formation and favour dynamical formation on time scales of less than 1 Myr. Another consequence is that ortho-H2 remains comparable to para-H2 in abundance outside the dense cores.

Theoretical Sensitivity of the C(3P) + OH(X2Π) → CO(X1Σ+) + H(2S) Rate Constant: The Role of the Long-Range Potential

Faced with the lack of experimental data on the C(3P) + OH(X2Pi) --> CO(X1Sigma+) + H(2S) reaction, we propose here to compare rate constant values and their behavior with temperature following various dynamical models and, in particular, to check the sensivity of these quantities with the long-range part of the potential energy surface. For that, we have evaluated the C + OH rate constant using the quasiclassical trajectory (QCT) method, the adiabatic capture centrifugal sudden approximation (ACCSA), and the mean potential capture theory (MPCT) based on a full ab initio potential energy surface fitted with q12,5 kernels or on a perturbative multipolar expansion (MPE) potential including the monomer spin orbit splittings (MPE-SO) or not. Despite the various approximations involved in the different methods and PESs, an excellent agreement is obtained in a subset of three models: the ACCSA method with PME-SO or ab initio PESs and the QCT method with the latter PES. This suggests that the reaction takes place once the system enters the deep valley of products. In that case, the errors due to these approximate methods and PESs are small and, consequently, the rate constants are accurately calculated. Furthermore, these findings provide evidence of preponderance of the entrance channel in the reactivity of this system.

Quasiclassical trajectory and statistical quantum calculations for the C + OH → CO + H reaction on the first excited 12A″ potential energy surface

We report quasiclassical trajectory dynamical calculations for the C((3)P) + OH(X(2)Π) → CO(a(3)Π) + H((2)S) using a recently developed ab initio potential energy surface for the first electronic state of HCO of 1(2)A″ symmetry. The dependence of integral cross sections on the collision energy was determined. Product energy and angular distributions have also been calculated. Integral cross sections show no energy threshold and decrease as the collision energy increases. The comparison with results obtained from a statistical quantum method seems to confirm that the reaction is mainly dominated by an indirect mechanism in which a long-lived intermediate complex is involved.