Gas Phase Formation of Noble Gas Molecules

ArH has been discovered in the interstellar medium, the first naturally occurring noble gas molecule ever detected. In an attempt to further understand the gas phase chemistry of small, covalent noble gas molecules, this work employs computational chemistry methods to analyze the stability of hypothesized noble gas structures. Computational methods including ab initio molecular quantum chemistry at the coupled cluster singles doubles and perturbative triples level with augmented correlation consistent basis sets have shown that ArOH and ArNH are stable species for detection in the laboratory or in the interstellar medium. Formation mechanisms and dissociation pathways for these molecules show that they are minima on their potential energy surfaces and can be created from known atmospheric and interstellar molecular systems. These computations pave the way for experiments to analyze such species in an informed fashion