DEUTERIUM FRACTIONATION AS AN EVOLUTIONARY PROBE IN MASSIVE PROTOSTELLAR/CLUSTER CORES

Journal Article · Tue Dec 20 04:00:00 EST 2011 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/743/2/196· OSTI ID:22004385

Chen, Huei-Ru; Wang, Mei-Yan ^[1]; Liu, Sheng-Yuan; Su, Yu-Nung ^[2]

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1. Institute of Astronomy and Department of Physics, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan (China)
2. Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan (China)

Clouds of high infrared extinction are promising sites of massive star/cluster formation. A large number of cloud cores discovered in recent years allow for the investigation of a 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 H II 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. Spectra of N{sub 2}H{sup +} (3-2), N{sub 2}D{sup +} (3-2), and C{sup 18}O (2-1) were observed to derive the deuterium fractionation of N{sub 2}H{sup +}, D{sub frac} {identical_to} N(N{sub 2}D{sup +})/N(N{sub 2}H{sup +}), as well as the CO depletion factor for every selected core. Our results show a decreasing trend in D{sub frac} with both gas temperature and line width. Since colder and quiescent gas is likely to be associated with less evolved cores, larger D{sub frac} appears to correlate with early phases of core evolution. Such decreasing trend resembles the behavior of D{sub frac} 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 D{sub frac} with the CO depletion factor, suggesting that sublimation of ice mantles alters the competition in the chemical reactions and reduces D{sub frac}. Our findings suggest a general chemical behavior of deuterated species in both low- and high-mass protostellar candidates at early stages. In addition, upper limits to the ionization degree are estimated to be within 2 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -7} and 5 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup -6}. The four quiescent cores have marginal field-neutral coupling and perhaps favor turbulent cooling flows.

• OSTI ID: 22004385
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 743; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ABUNDANCE
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
DEUTERIUM
FRACTIONATION
IONIZATION
LINE WIDTHS
MASS
STAR CLUSTERS
STAR EVOLUTION
STARS
TELESCOPES