A SEARCH FOR CO-EVOLVING ION AND NEUTRAL GAS SPECIES IN PRESTELLAR MOLECULAR CLOUD CORES
- Max-Planck Institut fuer Radioastronomie, D-53121 Bonn (Germany)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109 (United States)
A comparison between the widths of ion and neutral molecule spectral lines has been recently used to estimate the strength of the magnetic field in turbulent star-forming regions. However, the ion (HCO{sup +}) and neutral (HCN) species used in such studies may not be necessarily co-evolving at every scale and density, and thus, may not trace the same regions. Here, we use coupled chemical/dynamical models of evolving prestellar molecular cloud cores including non-equilibrium chemistry, with and without magnetic fields, to study the spatial distribution of HCO{sup +} and HCN, which have been used in observations of spectral line width differences to date. In addition, we seek new ion-neutral pairs that are good candidates for such observations, because they have similar evolution and are approximately co-spatial in our models. We identify three such good candidate pairs: HCO{sup +}/NO, HCO{sup +}/CO, and NO{sup +}/NO.
- OSTI ID:
- 22086296
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 760, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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