Theoretical Modeling

Theoretical modeling incorporates mathematics, chemical reaction rates, and in some cases, large-scale physical dynamics, to simulate the chemical processes occurring in astrophysical environments. Such models typically output chemical abundances, reaction pathways, and spectra. Depending on the model, some are able to vary physical conditions of the system such as time, density of the region studied, and other radiation-linked parameters. There is a variety of complexity in chemical models used in the field today, but the majority of models incorporate grain surface chemistry. Such models simulate chemistry in different evolutionary stages of star-formation and offer comparisons to observational data.