Employing Soft X-rays in Experimental Astrochemistry

TL;DR

This paper reviews the role of soft X-rays in astrochemistry, emphasizing their impact on chemical processes in interstellar environments and laboratory studies using various spectroscopic techniques.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of experimental astrochemistry studies involving soft X-rays, highlighting recent techniques and findings in the field.

Findings

Soft X-rays induce chemical reactions in astrophysical ices.

Secondary electrons from X-ray interactions trigger complex chemistry.

Laboratory techniques like TOF-MS and FTIR are crucial for studying these processes.

Abstract

The presence of soft x-rays is very important for the chemical evolution of interstellar medium and other astrophysical environments close to young and bright stars. Soft X-rays can penetrate deep in molecular clouds and protostellar disks and trigger chemistry in regions in which UV stellar photons do not reach. The effects of soft X-rays in astrophysical ices are also remarkable because they release secondary electrons in and on the surface of the ices, which trigger a new set or chemical reactions. In this chapter we will discuss firstly about the origin and relevance of soft X-rays in astrophysics. Next we will move to the effect of ionizing radiation in organic molecules present in astrophysical environment. We will discuss the use soft X-rays in astrochemistry laboratory studies at both gas- and solid-phase (ice). We will make a review covering our publications in this field, in particular, about the experiments employing time-of-flight spectroscopy (TOF-MS), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and photon stimulated ion desorption (PSID-TOF-MS). This study help us to understand the chemical evolution several astrophysical regions and also put constrains in the researches related with the life's origin.