Monte Carlo simulation of sugar synthesis on icy dust particles intermittently irradiated by UV in a protoplanetary disk

¹ Earth-Life Science Institute, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8550, Japan
e-mail: ida@elsi.jp
² Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8551, Japan
³ Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Chuo-ku, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 252-5210, Japan

Received: 28 January 2022
Accepted: 10 March 2022

Abstract

Context. While synthesis of organic molecules in molecular clouds or protoplanetary disks is complex, observations of interstellar grains, analyses of carbonaceous chondrites, and UV photochemistry experiments are rapidly developing and are providing constraints on and clues to the complex organic molecule synthesis in space. This motivates us to construct a theoretical synthesis model.

Aims. We developed a new code to simulate global reaction sequences of organic molecules and apply it to sugar synthesis by intermittent UV irradiation on the surface of icy particles in a protoplanetary disk. Here we show the first results of our new simulation.

Methods. We applied a Monte Carlo method to select reaction sequences from all possible reactions, using the graph-theoretic matrix model for chemical reactions and modeling reactions on the icy particles during UV irradiation.

Results. We obtain results consistent with the organic molecules in carbonaceous chondrites and obtained by experiments, albeit through a different pathway from the conventional formose reactions previously suggested. During UV irradiation, loosely bonded O-rich large molecules are continuously created and destroyed. After UV irradiation is turned off, the ribose abundance rapidly increases through the decomposition of the large molecules via breakage of O−O bonds and replacements of C−OH by C−H to reach O/C = 1 for sugars. The sugar abundance is regulated mostly by the total atomic ratio H/O of starting materials, but not by their specific molecular forms. Deoxyribose is simultaneously synthesized, and most of the molecules end up in complexes with C-rich molecules.