M. Karam Ouharou

Forty years ago it was proposed that gas phase organic chemistry in the interstellar medium can be initiated by the methyl cation CH 3 +  ( 1–3 ), but hitherto it has not been observed outside the Solar System ( 4, 5 ). Alternative routes involving processes on grain surfaces have been invoked ( 6, 7 ). Here we report JWST observations of CH+3CH3+ in a protoplanetary disk in the Orion star forming region. We find that gas-phase organic chemistry is activated by UV irradiation. Introduction : In the realm of cosmic evolution, protoplanetary disks serve as the cradles of new star systems and planetary bodies. These disks, composed of gas and dust, harbor an intricate web of chemical reactions that sculpt the materials essential for planet formation. Among the diverse array of chemical species within these disks, the methyl cation (CH3+) stands out as a key molecular fragment. Recent research has shed light on the intriguing formation of the methyl cation through photochem...

The amplitudes program in quantum field theory has revealed new and unexpected connections between gauge theories and gravity. Through the double copy relationship, in which gravity amplitudes are closely tied to the squares of gauge theory amplitudes, it has become possible to compute gravity amplitudes which would otherwise be prohibitively complicated. A natural question is whether a similar relationship holds between exact solutions, in which solutions to general relativity can be generated from solutions to a gauge theory. Indeed, using the Kerr-Schild transformation, a simple and precise relationship can be drawn between gauge fields and spacetime metrics . It is striking that many exact solutions to the Einstein equations can be presented as the double copies of gauge theory solutions, including all four-dimensional black hole spacetimes. Generically, nonlinear behavior in general relativity makes a boundary-value approach very difficult . However, in electrodynamics this is the...