No Arabic abstract
Deuterated interstellar molecules frequently have abundances relative to their main isotopologues much higher than the overall elemental D-to-H ratio in the cold dense interstellar medium. The H$_3^+$ and its isotopologues play a key role in the deuterium fractionation; however, the abundances of these isotopologues have not been measured empirically with respect to H$_3^+$ to date. Our aim was to constrain the relative abundances of H$_2$D$^+$ and D$_3^+$ in the cold outer envelope of the hot core CRL 2136 IRS 1. We carried out three observations targeting H$_3^+$ and its isotopologues using the spectrographs CRIRES at the VLT, iSHELL at IRTF, and EXES on board SOFIA. In addition, the CO overtone band at 2.3 $mu$m was observed by iSHELL to characterize the gas on the line of sight. The H$_3^+$ ion was detected toward CRL 2136 IRS 1 as in previous observations. Spectroscopy of lines of H$_2$D$^+$ and D$_3^+$ resulted in non-detections. The 3$sigma$ upper limits of $N({rm H_2D^+})/N({rm H_3^+})$ and $N({rm D_3^+})/N({rm H_3^+})$ are 0.24 and 0.13, respectively. The population diagram for CO is reproduced by two components of warm gas with the temperatures 58 K and 530 K, assuming a local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) distribution of the rotational levels. Cold gas ($<$20 K) makes only a minor contribution to the CO molecular column toward CRL 2136 IRS 1. The critical conditions for deuterium fractionation in a dense cloud are low temperature and CO depletion. Given the revised cloud properties, it is no surprise that H$_3^+$ isotopologues are not detected toward CRL 2136 IRS 1. The result is consistent with our current understanding of how deuterium fractionation proceeds.
We have observed the massive protostar AFGL 2136 IRS 1 in multiple wavelength windows in the near-to-mid-infrared at high ($sim3$ km s$^{-1}$) spectral resolution using VLT+CRIRES, SOFIA+EXES, and Gemini North+TEXES. There is an abundance of H$_2$O absorption lines from the $ u_1$ and $ u_3$ vibrational bands at 2.7 $mu$m, from the $ u_2$ vibrational band at 6.1 $mu$m, and from pure rotational transitions near 10-13 $mu$m. Analysis of state-specific column densities derived from the resolved absorption features reveals that an isothermal absorbing slab model is incapable of explaining the relative depths of different absorption features. In particular, the strongest absorption features are much weaker than expected, indicating optical depth effects resulting from the absorbing gas being well-mixed with the warm dust that serves as the background continuum source at all observed wavelengths. The velocity at which the strongest H$_2$O absorption occurs coincides with the velocity centroid along the minor axis of the compact disk in Keplerian rotation recently observed in H$_2$O emission with ALMA. We postulate that the warm regions of this dust disk dominate the continuum emission at near-to-mid infrared wavelengths, and that H$_2$O and several other molecules observed in absorption are probing this disk. Absorption line profiles are not symmetric, possibly indicating that the warm dust in the disk that produces the infrared continuum has a non-uniform distribution similar to the substructure observed in 1.3 mm continuum emission.
We would like to understand the chemistry of dense clouds and their hot cores more quantitatively by obtaining more complete knowledge of the chemical species present in them. We have obtained high-resolution infrared absorption spectroscopy at 3-4 um toward the bright infrared source CRL 2136. The fundamental vibration-rotation band of HCl has been detected within a dense cloud for the first time. The HCl is probably located in the warm compact circumstellar envelope or disk of CRL 2136. The fractional abundance of HCl is (4.9-8.7)e-8, indicating that approximately 20 % of the elemental chlorine is in gaseous HCl. The kinetic temperature of the absorbing gas is 250 K, half the value determined from infrared spectroscopy of 13CO and water. The percentage of chlorine in HCl is approximately that expected for gas at this temperature. The reason for the difference in temperatures between the various molecular species is unknown.
Methyl mercaptan (also known as methanethiol), CH3SH, has been found in the warm and dense parts of high -- as well as low -- mass star-forming regions. The aim of the present study is to obtain accurate spectroscopic parameters of the S-deuterated methyl mercaptan CH$_3$SD to facilitate astronomical observations by radio telescope arrays at (sub)millimeter wavelengths. We have measured the rotational spectrum associated with the large-amplitude internal rotation of the methyl group of methyl mercaptan using an isotopically enriched sample in the 150-510 GHz frequency range using the Koln millimeter wave spectrometer. The analysis of the spectra has been performed up to the second excited torsional state. We present modeling results of these data with the RAM36 program. CH$_3$SD was searched for, but not detected, in data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Protostellar Interferometric Line Survey (PILS) of the deeply embedded protostar IRAS 16293-2422. The derived upper limit corresponds to a degree of deuteration of at most ~18%.
Cyanamide is one of the few interstellar molecules containing two chemically different N atoms. It was detected recently toward the solar-type protostar IRAS 16293-2422 B together with H$_2$N$^{13}$CN and HDNCN in the course of the Atacama Large Millemeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Protostellar Interferometric Line Survey (PILS). The detection of the 15N isotopomers or the determination of upper limits to their column densities was hampered by the lack of accurate laboratory data at the frequencies of the survey. We wanted to determine spectroscopic parameters of the $^{15}$N isotopomers of cyanamide that are accurate enough for predictions well into the submillimeter region and to search for them in the PILS data. We investigated the laboratory rotational spectra of H$_2^{15}$NCN and H$_2$NC$^{15}$N in the selected region between 192 and 507~GHz employing a cyanamide sample in natural isotopic composition. Additionally, we recorded transitions of H$_2$N$^{13}$CN. We obtained new or improved spectroscopic parameters for the three isotopic species. Neither of the $^{15}$N isotopomers of cyanamide were detected unambiguously in the PILS data. Two relatively clean lines can be tentatively assigned to H$_2^{15}$NCN. If confirmed, their column densities would imply a low $^{14}$N/$^{15}$N ratio for cyanamide toward this source. The resulting line lists should be accurate enough for observations up to about 1 THz. More sensitive observations, potentially at different frequencies, may eventually lead to the astronomical detection of these isotopic species.
We present a systematic single-dish search for molecular outflows toward a sample of 9 candidate low-luminosity protostars and 30 candidate Very Low Luminosity Objects (VeLLOs; L_int < 0.1 L_sun). The sources are identified using data from the Spitzer Space Telescope catalogued by Dunham et al. toward nearby (D < 400 pc) star forming regions. Each object was observed in 12CO and 13CO J = 2-1 simultaneously using the sideband separating ALMA Band-6 prototype receiver on the Heinrich Hertz Telescope at 30 arcsecond resolution. Using 5-point grid maps we identify five new potential outflow candidates and make on-the-fly maps of the regions surrounding sources in the dense cores B59, L1148, L1228, and L1165. Of these new outflow candidates, only the map of B59 shows a candidate blue outflow lobe associated with a source in our survey. We also present larger and more sensitive maps of the previously detected L673-7 and the L1251-A IRS4 outflows and analyze their properties in comparison to other outflows from VeLLOs. The accretion luminosities derived from the outflow properties of the VeLLOs with detected CO outflows are higher than the observed internal luminosity of the protostars, indicating that these sources likely had higher accretion rates in the past. The known L1251-A IRS3 outflow is detected but not remapped. We do not detect clear, unconfused signatures of red and blue molecular wings toward the other 31 sources in the survey indicating that large-scale, distinct outflows are rare toward this sample of candidate protostars. Several potential outflows are confused with kinematic structure in the surrounding core and cloud. Interferometric imaging is needed to disentangle large-scale molecular cloud kinematics from these potentially weak protostellar outflows.