Complexity reduction of astrochemical networks

Abstract

We present a new computational scheme aimed at reducing the complexity of the chemical networks in astrophysical models, one which is shown to markedly improve their computational efficiency. It contains a flux-reduction scheme that permits us to deal with both large and small systems. This procedure is shown to yield a large speed-up of the corresponding numerical codes and provides good accord with the full network results. We analyse and discuss two examples involving chemistry networks of the interstellar medium and show that the results from the present reduction technique reproduce very well the results from fuller calculations. © 2012 The Authors Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2012 RAS.