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Silicon Oxide Nanoparticles Reveal The Origin Of Silicate Grains In Circumstellar Environments, Peneé Armaize Clayborne

Theses and Dissertations

The processes leading to the widespread presence of crystalline silicates throughout the galaxy and the origin of silicon nanoparticles thought to be responsible for the observed extended red emission in diffuse galactic background are still far from being understood. One of the most abundant oxygen bearing species in molecular astronomical regions is SiO. It has been conjectured that silicate formation probably proceeds via the agglomeration of these molecular species; however there are no studies to reveal the microscopic mechanism. We have used a synergistic approach combining experiments in molecular beams and first principles theoretical calculation to demonstrate that the passage …