Effects of H2 coating of grains on depletion of molecular species

TL;DR

This paper explores how H2 coating on interstellar grains might influence the evaporation rates of molecules, potentially explaining why some molecules remain in the gas phase longer than expected in cold, dense interstellar regions.

Contribution

It introduces the hypothesis that H2 coating affects evaporation rates of molecules on grains, offering a new perspective on molecular retention in interstellar clouds.

Findings

H2 coating may reduce evaporation rates of molecules

Potential explanation for incomplete molecular depletion

Calls for further experiments and simulations

Abstract

Physical conditions in dense and cold regions of interstellar clouds favour the formation of ice mantles on the surfaces of interstellar grains. It is predicted that most of the gaseous species heavier than H2 or He will adsorb onto the grains and will disappear from the gas-phase, changing its chemistry, within 10^9/n_H years. Nonetheless, many molecules in molecular clouds are not completely depleted in timescales of 10^5 yr. Several speculative mechanisms have been proposed to explain why molecules stay in the gas phase, but up to now none are fully convincing. At the same time, these mechanisms are not mutually exclusive and we can still explore the effects of other possible processes. We speculate on the consequences of H2 coating of grains on the evaporation rates of adsorbed species. More experiments and simulations are needed to calculate the evaporation rate Eevap(X-H2).