X-ray photolysis of CH3COCH3 ice: implications for the radiation effects of compact objects towards astrophysical ices

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this study, we employed broad-band X-rays (6–2000 eV) to irradiate the frozen acetone CH3COCH3, at the temperature of 12 K, with different photon fluences up to 2.7 × 1018 photons cm−2. Here, we consider acetone as a representative complex organic molecule (COM) present on interstellar ice grains. The experiments were conduced at the Brazilian Synchrotron facility (LNLS/CNPEN) employing infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) to monitor chemical changes induced by radiation in the ice sample. We determined the effective destruction cross-section of the acetone molecule and the effective formation cross-section for daughter species. Chemical equilibrium, obtained for fluence 2 × 1018 photons cm−2, and molecular abundances at this stage were determined, which also includes the estimates for the abundance of unknown molecules, produced but not detected, in the ice. Time-scales for ices, at hypothetical snow line distances, to reach chemical equilibrium around several compact and main-sequence X-ray sources are given. We estimate time-scales of 18 d, 3.6 and 1.8 months, 1.4 × 109–6 × 1011 yr, 600 and 1.2 × 107 yr, and 107 yr, for the Sun at 5 au, for O/B stars at 5 au, for white dwarfs at 1 LY, for the Crab pulsar at 2.25 LY, for Vela pulsar at 2.25 LY, and for Sagittarius A* at 3 LY, respectively. This study improves our current understanding about radiation effects on the chemistry of frozen material, in particular, focusing for the first time, the effects of X-rays produced by compact objects in their eventual surrounding ices.