The Chemistry of Translucent and High-Latitude Molecular Clouds

Abstract

The chemical and physical structure of translucent and high-latitude interstellar clouds is reviewed with reference to recent observational results. Current steady-state gas-phase models can explain the measured abundances of simple molecules such as CH, C_2 and OH, but fail to reproduce the observed column densities of more complex molecules such as H_2CO and C_3H_2. The importance of grain-surface chemistry and shock-heated chemistry in these clouds is discussed.

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