ROBO: a model and a code for studying the interstellar medium

¹ Department of AstronomyPadova University, Vicolo dell’Osservatorio 3, 35122 Padova, Italy
e-mail: tommaso.grassi@unipd.it
² Physics Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831-6372, USA

Received: 30 November 2009
Accepted: 1 May 2011

Abstract

We present robo, a model and its companion code for the study of the interstellar medium (ISM). The aim is to provide an accurate description of the physical evolution of the ISM and to set the ground for an ancillary tool to be inserted in NBody-Tree-SPH (NB-TSPH) simulations of large-scale structures in the cosmological context or of the formation and evolution of individual galaxies. The ISM model consists of gas and dust. The gas chemical composition is regulated by a network of reactions that includes a large number of species (hydrogen and deuterium-based molecules, helium, and metals). New reaction rates for the charge transfer in H⁺ and H₂ collisions are presented. The dust contains the standard mixture of carbonaceous grains (graphite grains and PAHs) and silicates. In our model dust are formed and destroyed by several processes. The model accurately treats the cooling process, based on several physical mechanisms, and cooling functions recently reported in the literature. The model is applied to a wide range of the input parameters, and the results for important quantities describing the physical state of the gas and dust are presented. The results are organized in a database suited to the artificial neural networks (ANNs). Once trained, the ANNs yield the same results obtained by ROBO with great accuracy. We plan to develop ANNs suitably tailored for applications to NB-TSPH simulations of cosmological structures and/or galaxies.