Coffee Chat

Interview with Albert Rimola

• Albert's Quantum Grain Website: https://www.quantumgrain.eu/

The Grab & GO

1. Enhanced formation of interstellar complex organic molecules on carbon monoxide ice

Molpeceres et al. arXiv (A&A)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.20707

2. Monte Carlo simulation of UV-driven synthesis of complex organic molecules on icy grain surfaces

Ochiai et al. arXiv (A&A)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.00640

3. Unveiling gas phase H2NCO radical: Laboratory rotational spectroscopy and interstellar search toward IRAS 16293-2422

Martin-Drumel et al. arXiv (A&A)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.01796

4. A fast neural emulator for interstellar chemistry

Asensio Ramos et al. arXiv (MNRAS)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.02387

5. Carbon Isotope Fractionation of Complex Organic Molecules in Star-Forming Cores

Ichimura et al. arXiv
https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.02961

6. Abundant hydrocarbons in the disk around a very-low-mass star

Arabhavi et al. Science
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adi8147

7. Deep Search for Phosphine in a Prestellar Core

Furuya et al. arXiv (ApJL)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.05978

8. QUIJOTE discovery of the cation radicals HC5N+ and HC7N+

Cernicharo et al. arXiv (A&A)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.06204  

9. Photofragmentation of Corannulene (C20H10) and Sumanene (C21H12) cations in gas phase and its astrophysical implications

Sundararajan et al. PCCP
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2024/CP/D4CP01247J

10. A laboratory infrared model of astrophysical pyrimidines

Antunes Rosa et al. MNRAS
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/531/4/4794/7695303

Single-Origin Brew

Interview with Will Styers

• Will's Paper on 3-Furonitrile

  • https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jpca.4c03093

Percolator

• Prof. Pleijel's speech on the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Victor Hess: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1936/ceremony-speech/

• Translation of Domenico Pacini's research on radiation in water: https://arxiv.org/abs/1002.1810

• NY Times Article by Victor Hess's Grandson
  https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/07/science/space/when-victor-hess-discovered-cosmic-rays-in-a-hydrogen-balloon.html

Chalkboard

• PhD, Postdoc, and Job Opportunities

  • There is a 3-year position at the Department of Molecular Astrophysics at CSIC, in Madrid, funded by the CSIC Talent Attraction actions. The project, entitled "Unconventional Processes in the Synthesis of Interstellar PAHs: Theory and Modeling," seeks to understand the most favorable pathways for the formation of simple aromatic compounds, such as benzene, benzyne, or cyclopentadiene, under the stringent conditions of the interstellar medium. The successful candidate will use automatic reaction discovery routines (supported by quantum chemical calculations) in tandem with astrochemical kinetic models to investigate previously overlooked chemical pathways in the synthesis of interstellar PAHs.

The contract is intended to start in Fall 2024, with some flexibility.  Interested parties should contact Germán Molpeceres (german.molpeceres@iff.csic.es) and Marcelino Agúndez (marcelino.agundez@csic.es).  

• • PhD Position Joint between Rennes (France) and Leuven (Belgium) on Reactive Collisions of Interest for Astrophysics with Lique and Loreau.
    One of the keys to determine the physical conditions prevailing in astrophysical environments as well as their chemical evolution is the knowledge of the excitation conditions and chemistry of astrophysical molecules. Despite significant progresses made over the last decades, there is still a huge lack of collisional and reactive data for these species, which prevents to make the most of nowadays highly resolved observations performed with ground-based telescopes such as ALMA or space-based telescope such as JWST. In addition, recent astrochemical models have highlighted the need of using state-to-state rate coefficients for molecular collisions and reactions in order to fully exploit recent observations of highly excited molecules. The calculations of such data using exact quantum methods are not possible mainly because of their computational cost. Hence, important methodological developments remain to be done in order to provide astronomers with reliable data. This thesis subject fits into this context and is dedicated to the study of the collisional excitation and reactivity of astrophysical ions (e.g. CH+, CH2+, H2O+, HeH+, …) detected in astrophysical and atmospherical environments. In particular, the development and the use of statistical methods should enable the possibility to obtain precise state-to-state data for the study of media of astrophysical and atmospherical interest. Participation in the interpretation of observations will be a natural extension of this project and will allow the candidate to investigate the impact of these new data on the astrophysical / atmospherical modeling.
    
    The joint PhD project will be co-supervised by François Lique (Rennes, France) and Jérôme Loreau (Leuven, Belgium). The PhD candidate is expected to spend ~75% of his research time at the University of Rennes and 25% of his research time in KU Leuven. Possibility of participating to teaching activities will be offered to the PhD candidate. 
    
    Application requires a CV, Motivation Letter, Names of Two References, and an Interview to Follow Review of Application.  Application should be sent to both François LIQUE (francois.lique@univ-rennes.fr) and Jerome Loreau (jerome.loreau@kuleuven.be).

  • PhD Position available  in Edinburgh, UK on Electron Driven Chemistry in the Interstellar Medium joint between the groups of Cate Anstoter and Ewen Campbell .  The project will combine computational chemistry and gas-phase spectroscopy to probe electron driven chemistry of astrochemically relevant species in the interstellar medium (ISM). Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are purported to be the largest charge carrier in the ISM, here we propose to use computational chemistry to model the intrinsic electronic structure and dynamics alongside spectroscopy. Historically research has hinged around an understanding of neutrals and cations in the ISM, despite the prevalence of free electrons and the redox chemistry that is proposed to drive the formation of molecules. Here we propose to probe electron attachment and detachment to hetero-PAHs, developing new computational protocols and benchmarking against electronic and vibrational spectra. The synergy between theory and experiment allows an unambiguous understanding of the fundamental chemistry, critical to answering several questions of societal interest.
    
    In the first instance, the initial application (including cover letter and CV) should be directed to:
    Cate Anstöter, School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, David Brewster Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FJ, UK. Email: Cate.anstoter@ed.ac.uk
    
    The position will remain open until 30 August 2024.

• Upcoming Meetings

  • The 27th International Conference on High Resolution Molecular Spectroscopy
    September 2-6
    Bologna, Italy

  • Born in Fire: Eruptive Stars and Planet Formation
    September 24-27
    Santiago, Chile

  • Cosmic Rays: The Salt of the Star Formation Recipe Vol 3
    October 22-24
    Florence, Italy