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Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons

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Publications

2004

Infrared: ISM

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

The Upper Limit For Ch4 In The Protostellar Disk Toward Hl Tauri, E L. Gibb, T Rettig, Sean D. Brittain, R Haywood, Theodore Simon, C Kulesa Jul 2004

The Upper Limit For Ch4 In The Protostellar Disk Toward Hl Tauri, E L. Gibb, T Rettig, Sean D. Brittain, R Haywood, Theodore Simon, C Kulesa

Publications

We used high-resolution infrared spectra of the heavily embedded T Tauri star HL Tau to search for evidence of absorption due to the R0, R1, and R2 gas-phase CH4 ν3 lines near 3.3 μm. From this, we report a 3 σ upper limit of 1.3 × 1015 cm-2 for the CH4 gas column density toward HL Tau. Our results are compared to those found for CO gas toward this source and to the recent model for chemistry in the inner (10 AU) disks around T Tauri stars by Markwick et al. We find that the upper limit of methane ice+gas …


Interstellar H3+ Line Absorption Toward Lkhα 101, Sean D. Brittain, Theodore Simon, Craig Kulesa, Terrence W. Rettig May 2004

Interstellar H3+ Line Absorption Toward Lkhα 101, Sean D. Brittain, Theodore Simon, Craig Kulesa, Terrence W. Rettig

Publications

We present a detection of three lines of the H+3 ion in the near-infrared spectrum of the Herbig Be star LkHalpha 101. H+3 is the principal initiator of gas-phase chemistry in interstellar clouds and can be used to constrain the ionization rate or the path length through interstellar material along the line of sight. Essentially all of the observed H+3 column of (2.2+/-0.3)×1014 cm-2 toward LkHalpha 101 originates in the same dense, dark cloud; less than 1 mag of the ~11 total magnitudes of visual extinction is attributable to diffuse material. Constraints on the density [1×104cm-3