Chemistry in Protoplanetary Disks
(CIPDISKS)
Start date: Sep 1, 2009,
End date: Aug 31, 2011
PROJECT
FINISHED
"The study of the chemistry in protoplanetary disks is one of the current hot topics in astrophysics. The interest in studying these systems is that it permits to get insight into the chemical composition of protosolar-like nebulae at the moment when planets form. The faint emission of such systems and the small angular sizes they subtend in the sky have prevented for many years an extensive observational study, which is nowadays possible and is starting to be developed since the last ten years. This project aims at developing our current knowledge of the chemistry in protoplanetary disks from both a theoretical and an observational point of view. Specifically we propose to develop a computational code able to compute the evolution of the chemical composition in the various regions of disks treating in a detailed way the various chemical and physical processes which dominate the chemistry of these objects. We also propose to perform multiwavelength observations with current telescope facilities such as the IRAM 30-meter telescope and Plateau de Bure interferometer, the Very Large Telescope, and the Herschel Space Observatory, in order to detect new molecules and indentify good tracers of the various chemical and physical properties in the various regions of disks, such as the kinetic temperature, isotopic fractionation, the ionization degree, or the level of molecular depletion on grains. This research appears to be absolutely necessary now as it is expected that the large angular resolution of incoming telescopes facilities such as the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) will revolutionize our current knowledge on the chemistry of protoplanetary disks. Such wealth of observational information will certainly need of a parallel development in the theoretical models in order to guarantee a proper interpretation of the observational data."
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