PROTONATED HCN IN MOLECULAR CLOUDS

P. Schilke, C.M. Walmsley, TJ Millar, C. Henkel

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Observations of protonated HCN (HCNH+) in a selection of galactic molecular clouds are reported. This species plays a key role in understanding the chemistry of the important high density tracer HCN. HCNH+ has been detected in the nearby cold dust cloud TMC-1 with an ratio relative to HCN of [HCNH+]/[HCN] between 0.015 and 0.26 (preferred value 0.03) and tentatively in DR21(OH) with a ratio of approximately 0.01. This is about 100 times higher than the ratio of protonated carbon monoxide to CO [HCO+]/[CO], but comparable to the [HCS+]/[CS] ratio. Possible explanations of these high abundance ratios are discussed in the light of model calculations.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)487-496
Number of pages10
JournalAstronomy and Astrophysics
Volume247
Publication statusPublished - 1991

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