Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userDeuterium Fractionation as an Evolutionary Probe in Massive Proto-stellar/cluster Cores
214
0
0.0
(
0
)
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
Clouds of high infrared extinction are promising sites of massive star/cluster formation. A large number of cloud cores discovered in recent years allows investigation of possible evolutionary sequence among cores in early phases. We have conducted a survey of deuterium fractionation toward 15 dense cores in various evolutionary stages, from high-mass starless cores to ultracompact Hii regions, in the massive star-forming clouds of high extinction, G34.43+0.24, IRAS 18151-1208, and IRAS 18223-1243, with the Submillimeter Telescope (SMT). Spectra of N2H+ (3 - 2), N2D+ (3 - 2), and C18O (2 - 1) were observed to derive the deuterium fractionation of N2H+, Dfrac equiv N(N2D+)/N(N2H+), as well as the CO depletion factor for every selected core. Our results show a decreasing trend in Dfrac with both gas temperature and linewidth. Since colder and quiescent gas is likely to be associated with less evolved cores, larger Dfrac appears to correlate with early phases of core evolution. Such decreasing trend resembles the behavior of Dfrac in the low-mass protostellar cores and is consistent with several earlier studies in high-mass protostellar cores. We also find a moderate increasing trend of Dfrac with the CO depletion factor, suggesting that sublimation of ice mantles alters the competition in the chemical reactions and reduces Dfrac. Our findings suggest a general chemical behavior of deuterated species in both low- and high-mass proto-stellar candidates at early stages. In addition, upper limits to the ionization degree are estimated to be within 2 times 10^-7 and 5 times 10^-6. The four quiescent cores have marginal field-neutral coupling and perhaps favor turbulent cooling flows.
rate research
Read More
We have observed the J=3-2 transition of N2H+ and N2D+ to investigate the trend of deuterium fractionation with evolutionary stage in three selected regions in the Infrared Dark Cloud (IRDC) G28.34+0.06 with the Submillimeter Telescope (SMT) and the Submillimeter Array (SMA). A comprehensible enhancement of roughly 3 orders of magnitude in deuterium fractionation over the local interstellar D/H ratio is observed in all sources. In particular, our sample of massive star-forming cores in G28.34+0.06 shows a moderate decreasing trend over a factor of 3 in the N(N2D+)/N(N2H+) ratio with evolutionary stage, a behavior resembling what previously found in low-mass protostellar cores. This suggests a possible extension for the use of the N(N2D+)/N(N2H+) ratio as an evolutionary tracer to high-mass protostellar candidates. In the most evolved core, MM1, the N2H+ (3-2) emission appears to avoid the warm region traced by dust continuum emission and emission of 13CO sublimated from grain mantles, indicating an instant release of gas-phase CO. The majority of the N2H+ and N2D+ emission is associated with extended structures larger than 8 (~ 0.2 pc).
High levels of deuterium fraction in N$_2$H$^+$ are observed in some pre-stellar cores. Single-zone chemical models find that the timescale required to reach observed values ($D_{rm frac}^{{rm N}_2{rm H}^+} equiv {rm N}_2{rm D}^+/{rm N}_2{rm H}^+ gtrsim 0.1$) is longer than the free-fall time, possibly ten times longer. Here, we explore the deuteration of turbulent, magnetized cores with 3D magnetohydrodynamics simulations. We use an approximate chemical model to follow the growth in abundances of N$_2$H$^+$ and N$_2$D$^+$. We then examine the dynamics of the core using each tracer for comparison to observations. We find that the velocity dispersion of the core as traced by N$_2$D$^+$ appears slightly sub-virial compared to predictions of the Turbulent Core Model of McKee & Tan, except at late times just before the onset of protostar formation. By varying the initial mass surface density, the magnetic energy, the chemical age, and the ortho-to-para ratio of H$_2$, we also determine the physical and temporal properties required for high deuteration. We find that low initial ortho-to-para ratios ($lesssim 0.01$) and/or multiple free-fall times ($gtrsim 3$) of prior chemical evolution are necessary to reach the observed values of deuterium fraction in pre-stellar cores.
High levels of deuterium fractionation of $rm N_2H^+$ (i.e., $rm D_{frac}^{N_2H^+} gtrsim 0.1$) are often observed in pre-stellar cores (PSCs) and detection of $rm N_2D^+$ is a promising method to identify elusive massive PSCs. However, the physical and chemical conditions required to reach such high levels of deuteration are still uncertain, as is the diagnostic utility of $rm N_2H^+$ and $rm N_2D^+$ observations of PSCs. We perform 3D magnetohydrodynamics simulations of a massive, turbulent, magnetised PSC, coupled with a sophisticated deuteration astrochemical network. Although the core has some magnetic/turbulent support, it collapses under gravity in about one freefall time, which marks the end of the simulations. Our fiducial model achieves relatively low $rm D_{frac}^{N_2H^+} sim 0.002$ during this time. We then investigate effects of initial ortho-para ratio of $rm H_2$ ($rm OPR^{H_2}$), temperature, cosmic ray (CR) ionization rate, CO and N-species depletion factors and prior PSC chemical evolution. We find that high CR ionization rates and high depletion factors allow the simulated $rm D_{frac}^{N_2H^+}$ and absolute abundances to match observational values within one freefall time. For $rm OPR^{H_2}$, while a lower initial value helps the growth of $rm D_{frac}^{N_2H^+}$, the spatial structure of deuteration is too widespread compared to observed systems. For an example model with elevated CR ionization rates and significant heavy element depletion, we then study the kinematic and dynamic properties of the core as traced by its $rm N_2D^+$ emission. The core, undergoing quite rapid collapse, exhibits disturbed kinematics in its average velocity map. Still, because of magnetic support, the core often appears kinematically sub-virial based on its $rm N_2D^+$ velocity dispersion.
We report the detection of D2CO in a sample of starless dense cores, in which we previously measured the degree of CO depletion. The deuterium fractionation is found extremely high, [D2CO]/[H2CO] ~ 1-10 %, similar to that reported in low-mass protostars. This provides convincing evidence that D2CO is formed in the cold pre-stellar cores, and later desorbed when the gas warms up in protostars. We find that the cores with the highest CO depletions have also the largest [D2CO]/[H2CO] ratios, supporting the theoretical prediction that deuteration increases with increasing CO depletion.
We have performed a pointed survey of N2D+ 2-1 and N2D+ 3-2 emission toward 64 N2H+-bright starless and protostellar cores in the Perseus molecular cloud using the Arizona Radio Observatory Submillimeter Telescope and Kitt Peak 12 m telescope. We find a mean deuterium fractionation in N2H+, R_D = N(N2D+)/N(N2H+), of 0.08, with a maximum R_D = 0.2. In detected sources, we find no significant difference in the deuterium fractionation between starless and protostellar cores, nor between cores in clustered or isolated environments. We compare the deuterium fraction in N2H+ with parameters linked to advanced core evolution. We only find significant correlations between the deuterium fraction and increased H_2 column density, as well as with increased central core density, for all cores. Towards protostellar sources, we additionally find a significant anti-correlation between R_D and bolometric temperature. We show that the Perseus cores are characterized by low CO depletion values relative to previous studies of star forming cores, similar to recent results in the Ophiuchus molecular cloud. We suggest that the low average CO depletion is the dominant mechanism that constrains the average deuterium fractionation in the Perseus cores to small values. While current equilibrium and dynamic chemical models are able to reproduce the range of deuterium fractionation values we find in Perseus, reproducing the scatter across the cores requires variation in parameters such as the ionization fraction or the ortho- to para-H_2 ratio across the cloud, or a range in core evolution timescales.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
