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The effects of mantle desorption due to cosmic rays on the chemistry of interstellar clouds are modelled. Two desorption mechanisms are considered – direct cosmic ray heating of dust grains and cosmic ray induced photodesorption. Their effects at densities typical of a molecular cloud and a dense core are investigated. It is found that both mechanisms have a significant effect on the gas-phase molecular abundances. The results for the molecular cloud case are compared with observations of TMC–1 and found to be in reasonable agreement.
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Willacy et al. (1993) studied this question.
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