nai

Project Summary

In the interstellar medium, the formation of molecular hydrogen is still
unresolved. Various production mechanisms have been proposed.
These involve a) dissociative recombination of H3+ with an electron, b)
formation on grain surfaces, and c) formation in ices via interaction of
cosmic ray particles. Here, we are conducting laboratory experiment to
investigate to what extent cosmic ray particles can form molecular
hydrogen upon interaction with ice-coated interstellar grain particles.
The formation routes to be elucidated can be also exported to ices in
our Solar system.