Approach to astrominelarogy based on the density functional theory

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26610043
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Astronomy
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Onaka Takashi 東京大学, 大学院理学系研究科(理学部), 教授 (30143358)
• Research Collaborator: Joblin Christine Instite de Recherche en Astrophysique, 主任研究員 ; Pathak Amit Tezpur University, 物理学科, 准教授 ; Wu Roni Paris Observatory, 研究員 ; Swami Mahadevappa Naganathappa Gitam University, 物理学科, 助教
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 星間塵 / 宇宙鉱物学 / 赤外線観測 / 密度汎関数理論

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Fine structures of the infrared bands of crystalline materials seen in celestial objects are expected to provide the properties and composition of the materials, leading to astromineralogy. However, due to the lack of theoretical identifications of the vibration modes, comparison of observational data with laboratory data is limited to empirical investigations and full power of astromineralogy has not been developed. In this research we apply the density functional theory (DFT)to the calculation of vibration modes of minerals of astronomical interest and the basis of comparison with observations is obtained. The DFT calculation is also applied to organics and the deuterium content in interstellar organic materials is investigated. Comparison with observations based on the DFT calculations suggests that the deuterium content in organic materials is by an order of magnitude smaller than theoretically suggested.

Free Research Field

天体物理学