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Abundance and chemistry of interstellar HOCO+
Y C Minh1, M K Brewer, W M Irvine
1Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst 01003, USA.
Astronomy and Astrophysics
|January 1, 1991
Abstract:
We derive HOCO+ column densities approximately 10(15) cm-2 toward the Galactic center and < or = 10(12) cm-2 for cold dark clouds from observations and an LVG model. We mapped the HOCO+ 4(04)-3(03) line toward Sgr A. The fractional abundance of HOCO+ in the Galactic center region is three orders of magnitude larger than predicted by quiescent ion-molecule chemistry and an order of magnitude larger than predicted by a MHD shock model. If HOCO+ traces interstellar CO2, the implied high abundance ([CO2] approximately [CO]) in the Galactic center may result from UV photolysis of grain mantles.