MOLECULAR UNIVERSE

The Chemistry in Regions of Star Formation: The consortium will explore all aspects of chemistry in star forming regions starting from dark cloud cores, through their slow ambipolar contraction phase, their gravitational collapse phase, the formation and evolution of a circumstellar planetary disk, to the eventual disruption of the cloud by the newly formed star. The consortium will employ experimental studies on relevant reactions and their products, quantum chemical studies, supported by laboratory studies, on the excitation characteristics of the species formed this way, and astronomical models including detailed radiative transfer in these molecular lines.