[tel-00726959, v1] Caractériser le milieu interstellaire ... - HAL - INRIA

J. Pety et al.: Are PAHs precursors of small hydrocarbons in photo-dissociation regions? 897tel-00726959, version 1 - 31 Aug 2012reproducing the good hydrocarbon correlation seen in the illuminatedpart of the PDR: while CCH is correctly predicted tohave a smooth abundance increase, modeled c-C 3 H 2 and C 4 Habundances show a much too steep increase.4.2. Can the fragmentation of PAHs contributeto the synthesis of small hydrocarbons?Examining the model predictions in more detail, three hypothesescan be proposed to explain the discrepancies betweenmodel calculations and observations:i) The photo-dissociation rates used in the models maybe incorrect. As the main destruction process near thecloud edge is photo-dissociation, the actual values of thephoto-dissociation rates are critical for an accurate prediction.However, similar results are obtained with theUMIST95 and NSM rate files. The photo-dissociation ratesfor c-C 3 H 2 , C 3 H and C 4 H are 10 −9 s −1 for both ratefiles, and differ by a factor of two for CCH (i.e. 0.51 ×10 −9 s −1 for UMIST95 and 10 −9 s −1 for NSM). The photodissociationrates of larger chains are similar. In mostcases, except for CCH and acetylene, the numbers givenin the rate files are not well documented. For instance,van Dishoeck (1988) discusses the photo-dissociation rateof c-C 3 H 2 and concludes that it is accurate within an orderof magnitude. More accurate photo-dissociation ratesare clearly needed for the carbon chains and cycles. Recentcalculations have been performed for C 4 H showing thatthe photo-dissociation threshold is 5.74 eV, but that efficientphoto-dissociation requires more energetic photons,typically above 6.5 eV (Graf et al. 2001). However,it is unlikely that the rates are low enough to explainthe large discrepancies between the models and the datasince these molecules are known to be sensitive to UVradiation(Jackson et al. 1991; Song et al. 1994).ii) Another possibility is that the chemical networks are missingimportant reactions for the synthesis of hydrocarbons.Neutral-neutral reactions are progressively includedin the rate files, but still are much less numerous thanion-molecule reactions. It is now known that atomic carbon,diatomic carbon and CCH may react with hydrocarbons(Kaiser et al. 2003; Stahl et al. 2002; Mebel & Kaiser2002). More work remains to be done. However, preliminarytests using a more extended data base of chemicalreactions have not led to significant improvement.iii) The excellent spatial correlation between the mid-IR emissiondue to PAHs and the distribution of carbon chainssuggests a last hypothesis: the fragmentation of PAHs dueto the intense far UV-radiation could seed the interstellarmedium with a variety of carbon clusters, chains andrings (Scott et al. 1997; Verstraete et al. 2001; Le Page et al.2003; Joblin 2003, and references therein). These specieswould then further react with gas phase species (C, C + ,H,H 2 , etc.) and participate in the synthesis of the observedhydrocarbons. Fuente et al. (2003) also favor this explanationto explain the abundance of c-C 3 H 2 they observed inother PDRs.A correct exploration of this third hypothesis needs a goodqualitative and quantitative description of both the fragmentationand reformation of PAHs, which is out of the scope of thispaper. We here give only a few indications. Omont (1986) pioneeredattempts to understand the role of PAHs in interstellarchemistry. Elaborating on this work, Lepp & Dalgarno (1988)suggested that the participation of PAHs in the ion chemistry ofdense clouds leads to large increases in the abundances of smallhydrocarbons. Indeed, when the PAH fractional abundance exceeds∼10 −7 , the formation of PAH − triggers mutual neutralizationof the positive atomic and molecular ions and introducesnew pathways for the formation of complex molecules.The equilibrium abundances of neutral atomic carbon C, CCHand c-C 3 H 2 may thus be enhanced by two orders of magnitude.By comparison, our model C which includes charge exchangebetween C + and PAHs, shows a decrease of C 4 Handc-C 3 H 2abundances by at least an order of magnitude in the dark region.Introduction of mutual neutralization between C + and PAH −could be an interesting alternative to our “artificial” loweringof the sulfur abundance. We are currently acquiring CS data atPdBI to constrain the S chemistry independently.Lepp et al. (1988) suggested that the ion chemistryof diffuse clouds has little impact on the CH, OH andHD abundance, but can lead to a large increase in the abundanceof other species (H 2 ,NH 3 and most noticeably CH 4and C 2 H 2 ) by successive reactions of PAH and PAH − withcarbon and hydrogen atoms. Talbi et al. (1993) suggestedthat Coulombic explosion of doubly ionized PAH could createc-C 3 H 2 through the electronic dissociative recombinationof C 3 H + 3. Laboratory experiments by Jochims et al. (1994) suggestedthat PAHs with less than 30−40 carbon atoms will beUV-photodissociated in HI regions while larger ones will bestable. Based on those results, models by Allain et al. (1996b,a)indicate that only PAHs with more than 50 carbon atoms survivethe high UV radiation field of the diffuse interstellarmedium, whereas smaller PAHs such as coronene or ovaleneare destroyed by the loss of acetylenic groups. Destructiontimescales are a few years for neutral species and typically fivetime shorter for the corresponding cations. All those reactionsstart from neutral or cation PAHs. They will be in competitionwith charge exchange and mutual neutralization discussedabove. Mutual neutralization has a maximal effect in the transitionregion where the gas is molecular but the electronic abundanceis significant. This region corresponds more or less to theregion of maximum emission from the PAHs or slightly deeperin the molecular cloud. All other cited reactions are more efficienttoward the illuminated edge where PAHs are mainly neutral.Recently, Le Page et al. (2003) discussed the possibility ofaddition reactions with ionized carbon, starting from the highreaction rate between C + and anthracene measured by Canosaet al. (1995). If similar reaction rates persist for heavier PAHs,addition reactions with carbon would be very efficient in counteractingthe destruction by far-UV photons.From the observational point of view, the mid-IR emissiondue to PAHs is extended in interstellar clouds. On the otherhand, a detailed analysis of the mid and far-IR images obtainedby IRAS led Boulanger et al. (1990) and Bernard et al.(1993) to conclude that PAHs disappear in the dense cold cloudArticle published by EDP Sciences and available at http://www.edpsciences.org/aa or http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20041170