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Grant support

We thank Prof. J.A.C. Varandas for providing us with the fortran code of their PES for the ground electronic state. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement no. 610256 (NANOCOSMOS). We also acknowledge support by the Ministerio de Economia e Innovacion under grants Nos. CSD2009-00038, AYA2012-32032, AYA2016-75066-C2-1-P and FIS2014-52172-C2. M.A. thanks funding support from the Ramon y Cajal programme of Spanish MINECO (RyC-2014-16277). The calculations have been performed in the CCC-UAM and trueno-CSIC computing centers.

Analysis of institutional authors

Aguado, AlfredoAuthor
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The Photodissociation of HCN and HNC: Effects on the HNC/HCN Abundance Ratio in the Interstellar Medium

Publicated to:ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL. 838 (1): 33- - 2017-03-20 838(1), DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aa63ee

Authors: Aguado, Alfredo; Roncero, Octavio; Zanchet, Alexandre; Agundez, Marcelino; Cernicharo, Jose;

Affiliations

CSIC, Inst Ciencia Mat Madrid, C Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz 3, E-28049 Canto Blanco, Spain - Author
CSIC, Inst Fis Fundamental, Serrano 123, E-28006 Madrid, Spain - Author
Univ Autonoma Madrid, Dept Quim Fis Aplicada UAM, Unidad Asociada IFF CSIC, Fac Ciencias Modulo 14, E-28049 Madrid, Spain - Author

Abstract

The impact of the photodissociation of HCN and HNC isomers is analyzed in different astrophysical environments. For this purpose, the individual photodissociation cross section of HCN and HNC isomers have been calculated in the 7-13.6 eV photon energy range for a temperature of 10 K. These calculations are based on the ab initio calculation of three-dimensional adiabatic potential energy surfaces of the 21 lower electronic states. The cross sections are then obtained using a quantum wave packet calculation of the rotational transitions needed to simulate a rotational temperature of 10 K. The cross section calculated for HCN shows significant differences with respect to the experimental one, and this is attributed to the need of considering non-adiabatic transitions. Ratios between the photodissociation rates of HCN and HNC under different ultraviolet radiation fields have been computed by renormalizing the rates to the experimental one. It is found that HNC is photodissociated faster than HCN by a factor of 2.2, for the local interstellar radiation field, and 9.2, for the solar radiation field at 1 au. We conclude that to properly describe the HNC/HCN abundance ratio in astronomical environments illuminated by an intense ultraviolet radiation field it is necessary to use different photodissociation rates for each of the two isomers, obtained by integrating the product of the photodissociation cross sections and ultraviolet radiation field over the relevant wavelength range.

Keywords
Absorption-spectraChemistryDcnExcited electronic statesHydrogen isocyanide hncIsm: abundancesIsm: moleculesLi-hfMolecular cloudsPhoton-dominated region (pdr)Potential-energy surfacePredissociation dynamicsTransition-state spectroscopyUltraviolet: ism

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2017, it was in position 11/66, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Astronomy & Astrophysics.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations from Scopus Elsevier, it yields a value for the Field-Weighted Citation Impact from the Scopus agency: 1.01, which indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 7.6 (source consulted: Dimensions May 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-05-12, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 20
  • Scopus: 26
  • Europe PMC: 4
Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-05-12:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 18.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 18 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 0.25.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 1 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
Leadership analysis of institutional authors

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (AGUADO GOMEZ, ALFREDO) .