AstroFIt 2 – COFUND fellow since November 1, 2016.
Project ended on October 31, 2019.
INAF Research Centre: Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri
Email: marco.padovani at inaf.it
In the media:
- Cosmic-ray ionization in circumstellar discs
- Cosmic rays explain the origin of atomic hydrogen in dark clouds
- Synchroton emission in molecular cloud cores: the SKA view
- Se Voyager 1 e Ams lavorano in tandem per Ska (Media INAF, 18/1/2019)
- Elettroni sotto shock nelle nursery stellari (Media INAF, 24/9/2019)
- Non-thermal emission from cosmic ray accelerated in HII regions
Conference:
- Cosmic Rays: the salt of the star formation recipe (Florence, 2-4 May 2018)
Papers/Publications:
- Stellar energetic particle ionization in protoplanetary disks around T Tauri stars (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 24/2/2017)
- The onset of energetic particle irradiation in Class 0 protostars (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 28/8/2017)
- Protostars as cosmic-ray factories (Mem. S.A.It. Vol. 88, 608)
- Resolving the polarized dust emission of the disk around the massive star powering the HH 80-81 radio jet (Astrophysical Journal Letters, 16/3/2018)
- Cosmic-ray ionisation in circumstellar discs (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 31/5/2018) – Highlight
- Magnetic Mirroring and Focusing of Cosmic Rays (The Astrophysical Journal, 16/7/2018)
- Magnetic field in a young circumbinary disk (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 7/8/2018)
- Protonated CO2 in massive star-forming clumps (MNRAS, 31/8/2018)
- ALMA observations of polarized emission toward the CW Tau and DG Tau protoplanetary disks: constraints on dust grain growth and settling (Astrophysical Journal Letters, 10/9/2018)
- Production of atomic hydrogen by cosmic rays in dark clouds (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 13/09/2018)
- Synchrotron emission in molecular cloud cores: the SKA view (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 20/11/2018)
- The challenges of modelling microphysics: ambipolar diffusion, chemistry, and cosmic rays in MHD shocks (MNRAS, 4/1/2019)
- Protostellar Outflows at the EarliesT Stages (POETS). II. A possible radio synchrotron jet associated with the EGO G035.02+0.35 (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 28/1/2019)
- The central 1000 AU of a pre-stellar core revealed with ALMA. I. 1.3 mm continuum observations (The Astrophysical Journal, 15/2/2019)
- ALMA resolves the hourglass magnetic field in G31.41+0.31 (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 6/8/2019)
- Non-thermal emission from cosmic rays accelerated in HII regions (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 22/8/2019)
- The physical and chemical structure of Sagittarius B2 V. Non-thermal emission in the envelope of Sgr B2 (Astronomy & Astrophysics, 23/8/2019)
Project title: ORIGIN – cOsmic Rays, trIGgers of prebIotic chemistry in the iNterstellar medium
Abstract:
The study of the interaction of cosmic rays (CRs) with the interstellar medium (ISM) is a multidisciplinary task requiring the analysis of several physical and chemical processes. Being the primary source of ionisation in dense molecular clouds (MCs) shielded by the interstellar UV radiation field, CRs produce molecular ions and electrons that activate the rich chemistry of dense cool gas, leading to the formation of complex species. By determining the ionisation fraction, CRs fix the degree of coupling of the gas with the local magnetic field, thus controlling the dynamical evolution of MCs and the efficiency of star and planet formation. In these processes, a fraction of the kinetic energy of CR particles is converted into heating, so that CRs also affect the thermal balance of MCs determining their temperature. In addition, CRs of energy of about 50-100 MeV produce light elements (Li, Be, B) by spallation reactions, while CRs of energies in the range GeV-TeV contribute to the γ-ray emission of MCs via pion decay. Finally, in the inner part of a prestellar core, CRs control the distribution of charge of dust grains and therefore the rate at which grains coagulate to form bigger conglomerates, a fundamental mechanism for the formation of planetesimals.
The goal of ORIGIN is to develop and use chemo-dynamical models and numerical simulations supplemented by dedicated observations to provide a unifying framework for the complex phenomena associated to the interaction of CRs with the ISM, in interstellar and protoplanetary environments. This research is fundamentally interdisciplinary, coupling the fields of astroparticle physics and astrochemistry to the new field of astrobiology: CRs are responsible for photolysing ices present on interstellar dust grains to form pre-biotic and biotic molecules. As a byproduct of this project, one expects therefore to determine the effects of particle irradiation on gas mixtures of composition similar to that of the proto-Earth.
Here I am: