27 septembre 2022
Par : Melisse Bonfand (U. Virginia)
Titre: Physico-chemical evolution of high-mass star-forming regions
Abstract:
Stars with masses above 8 Msun are known to play a key role in setting up the physics and chemistry of the interstellar medium. Although these high-mass stars have been the prime targets of numerous observational and theoretical studies, the complex interplay between the physical and chemical processes involved in their formation is still a debated issue. The new capabilities of state-of-the art radio-interferometers, combining high-sensitivity and wide-bandwidth observations, together with the new sophisticated numerical chemical codes, have recently opened a new window on the study of high-mass star formation.
In my presentation I will focus on the hot and dense environment of young high-mass stars, known as hot core, which is an excellent laboratory to investigate the formation of complex organic molecules. I will present the first results obtained using a new gas-grain chemical kinetic code, coupled with a 2D radiative hydrodynamical model of star formation. The time-dependent predictions of the chemical models compared to the results derived from several ALMA observing programs that uncovered a large sample of star-forming sources, at different scales and different evolutionary stages, will allow us to determine up to which point the chemical composition of a source can help us to characterize its properties, nature, and evolutionary stage.