Search

We report the first detection of radio recombination lines (RRLs) of ions heavier than helium. In a highly sensitive multi-band (12--50 GHz) line survey toward Orion KL with the TianMa 65-m Radio Telescope (TMRT), we successfully detected more than fifteen unblended $\alpha$ lines of RRLs of singly ionized species (XII) recombined from XIII. The Ka-band (35--50 GHz) spectrum also shows tentative signals of $\beta$ lines of ions. The detected lines can be successfully crossmatched with the the rest frequencies of RRLs of CII and/or OII. This finding greatly expands the connotation of ion RRLs, since before this work only two blended lines (105$\alpha$ and 121$\alpha$) of HeII had been reported. Our detected lines can be fitted simultaneously under assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE). An abundance of CIII and OIII of 8.8$\times$10$^{-4}$ is obtained, avoiding the complexities of optical/infrared observations and the blending of RRLs of atoms. It is consistent with but approaches the upper bound of the value (10$^{-4}$--$10^{-3}$) estimated from optical/infrared observations. The effects of dielectronic recombination may contribute to enhancing the level populations even at large $n$. We expect future observations using radio interferometers could break the degeneracy between C and O, and help to reveal the ionization structure and dynamical evolution of various ionized regions., Comment: 3 figures, 2 tables, accepted by A&A Letter

We present the four-year survey results of monthly submillimeter monitoring of eight nearby ($< 500 $pc) star-forming regions by the JCMT Transient Survey. We apply the Lomb-Scargle Periodogram technique to search for and characterize variability on 295 submillimeter peaks brighter than 0.14 Jy beam$^{-1}$, including 22 disk sources (Class II), 83 protostars (Class 0/I), and 190 starless sources. We uncover 18 secular variables, all of them protostars. No single-epoch burst or drop events and no inherently stochastic sources are observed. We classify the secular variables by their timescales into three groups: Periodic, Curved, and Linear. For the Curved and Periodic cases, the detectable fractional amplitude, with respect to mean peak brightness, is $\sim4$ % for sources brighter than $\sim$ 0.5 Jy beam$^{-1}$. Limiting our sample to only these bright sources, the observed variable fraction is 37 % (16 out of 43). Considering source evolution, we find a similar fraction of bright variables for both Class 0 and Class I. Using an empirically motivated conversion from submillimeter variability to variation in mass accretion rate, six sources (7 % of our full sample) are predicted to have years-long accretion events during which the excess mass accreted reaches more than 40 % above the total quiescently accreted mass: two previously known eruptive Class I sources, V1647 Ori and EC 53 (V371 Ser), and four Class 0 sources, HOPS 356, HOPS 373, HOPS 383, and West 40. Considering the full protostellar ensemble, the importance of episodic accretion on few years timescale is negligible, only a few percent of the assembled mass. However, given that this accretion is dominated by events of order the observing time-window, it remains uncertain as to whether the importance of episodic events will continue to rise with decades-long monitoring., Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

Benzene (C6H6) ice has been observed in the Titan’s stratosphere [1], and benzonitrile (C6H5CN) is a possible constituent in the benzene and nitrogen-rich environment of Titan’s atmosphere [2]. The energetic processing of such aromatic molecules can synthesize large and complex aromatic molecules such as the Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs). To-date a number of laboratory experiments have reported the formation of complex organics from the energetic processing of aromatic molecules [3-6]. In particular, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) micrographs of the residues resulting from irradiated benzene ices are found to contain geometrically shaped particles [6]. Therefore, by employing electron microscopes, we can understand the physical nature of the dust leftover from the aromatic molecule irradiation. In the present investigation, we subjected benzonitrile ice made at 4 K to vacuum ultraviolet (9 eV) radiation at two beamlines, BL03 and BL21A2 of Taiwan Light Source at NSRRC, Taiwan. After irradiation, the ice was warmed to room temperature, which left a brownish residue on the Potassium Bromide (KBr) substrate. The VUV spectrum of the residue is observed to have characteristic aromatic signatures. The residue is then transferred to a quantifoil grid for High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscope (HR- TEM) imaging. HR-TEM micrographs revealed the presence of graphene in the residue. This result suggests that N-graphene could be present in benzene and nitrogen-rich icy clouds of Titan. The high masses observed by the Cassini plasma spectrometer in Titan’s atmosphere could then be attributed to the presence of N-graphene along with the more common tholins [7]. References [1] Vinatier S. et al. (2018) Icarus, 310, 89. [2] Loison J. C. et al. (2019) Icarus 329, 55. [3] Strazzulla G. et al. (1991) A&A, 241, 310. [4] Callahan M. P. et al. (2013) Icarus, 226, 1201. [5] James R. et al. (2019) RSC Adv. 9 (10), 5453. [6] Rahul K. K. et al. (2020) Spectrochim. Acta A, 231, 117797. [7] Rahul K. K. et al. (2020) arXiv:2008.10011.

Prestellar cores are self-gravitating dense and cold structures within molecular clouds where future stars are born. They are expected, at the stage of transitioning to the protostellar phase, to harbor centrally concentrated dense (sub)structures that will seed the formation of a new star or the binary/multiple stellar systems. Characterizing this critical stage of evolution is key to our understanding of star formation. In this work, we report the detection of high-density (sub)structures on the thousand-astronomical-unit (au) scale in a sample of dense prestellar cores. Through our recent ALMA observations toward the Orion Planck Galactic Cold Clumps, we have found five extremely dense prestellar cores, which have centrally concentrated regions of ∼2000 au in size, and several 107 cm-3 in average density. Masses of these centrally dense regions are in the range of 0.30 to 6.89M⊙. For the first time, our higher resolution observations (0.8' ∼ 320 au) further reveal that one of the cores shows clear signatures of fragmentation; such individual substructures/fragments have sizes of 800-1700 au, masses of 0.08 to 0.84M⊙, densities of 2 - 8 × 107 cm-3, and separations of ∼1200 au. The substructures are massive enough (≳0.1M⊙) to form young stellar objects and are likely examples of the earliest stage of stellar embryos that can lead to widely (∼1200 au) separated multiple systems., L. acknowledges the support from the international partnership program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences through grant No.114231KYSB20200009, National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) through grant NSFC No.12073061, and Shanghai Pujiang Program 20PJ1415500. N.H. acknowledges MoST 108-2112-M-001-017 and MoST 109-2112-M-001-023 grants. G.G. acknowledges support from ANID project AFB 170002. L.B. acknowledges support from ANID project AFB-170002. S.L.Q. is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant No. U1631237. D.J. is supported by NRC Canada and by an NSERC Discovery Grant. V.M.P. acknowledges support by the Spanish MINECO under project AYA2017-88754-P, and financial support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the “Unit of Excellence María de Maeztu 2020-2023” award to the Institute of Cosmos Sciences (CEX2019-000918-M). C.W.L. is supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (NRF-2019R1A2C1010851). A.S. acknowledges financial support from the NSF through grant AST-1715876. The research was carried out in part at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is operated for NASA by the California Institute of Technology. D. L. acknowledges support from NSFC No. 11911530226 and 11725313. K.T. was supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant No. 20H05645. J.H. thanks the NSFC grant No. 11873086 and Yunnan Province of China (No. 2017HC018).This work is sponsored (in part) by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), through a grant to the CAS South America Center for Astronomy (CASSACA) in Santiago, Chile.

Gas at high Galactic latitude is a relatively little-noticed component of the interstellar medium. In an effort to address this, forty-one Planck Galactic Cold Clumps at high Galactic latitude (HGal; $|b|>25^{\circ}$) were observed in $^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO and C$^{18}$O J=1-0 lines, using the Purple Mountain Observatory 13.7-m telescope. $^{12}$CO (1-0) and $^{13}$CO (1-0) emission was detected in all clumps while C$^{18}$O (1-0) emission was only seen in sixteen clumps. The highest and average latitudes are $71.4^{\circ}$ and $37.8^{\circ}$, respectively. Fifty-one velocity components were obtained and then each was identified as a single clump. Thirty-three clumps were further mapped at 1$^\prime$ resolution and 54 dense cores were extracted. Among dense cores, the average excitation temperature $T_{\mathrm{ex}}$ of $^{12}$CO is 10.3 K. The average line widths of thermal and non-thermal velocity dispersions are $0.19$ km s$^{-1}$ and $0.46$ km s$^{-1}$ respectively, suggesting that these cores are dominated by turbulence. Distances of the HGal clumps given by Gaia dust reddening are about $120-360$ pc. The ratio of $X_{13}$/$X_{18}$ is significantly higher than that in the solar neighbourhood, implying that HGal gas has a different star formation history compared to the gas in the Galactic disk. HGal cores with sizes from $0.01-0.1$ pc show no notable Larson's relation and the turbulence remains supersonic down to a scale of slightly below $0.1$ pc. None of the HGal cores which bear masses from 0.01-1 $M_{\odot}$ are gravitationally bound and all appear to be confined by outer pressure., 35 pages, 13 figures

Phenol, which belongs to the C6H6O isomeric group, is the simplest molecule in the family of alcohol of the aromatic series. Although phenol has yet to be detected in the interstellar medium, a tentative identification was reported toward the Orion KL hot core using the IRAM-30 m line survey. To explore some more species of this isomeric group, we consider ten species to study the fate of their astronomical detection. It is noticed that phenol is the most energetically favorable isomer of this group. In contrast, propargyl ether is the least favorable (having relative energy ∼103 kcal mol−1 compared to phenol) species of this group. So far, the studies associated with the formation of phenol are heavily concentrated on combustion chemistry. Here, we suggest a few key reactions (C6H6 + OH → C6H5 + H2O, C6H6 + O → C6H5OH, C6H6 + H → C6H5 + H2, and C6H5 + OH → C6H5OH + h ν) for the formation of phenol. All these pathways are included in a large gas-grain chemical network to study its formation in high mass star-forming regions and dark cloud environments. It is noticed that the phenyl (−C6H5) formation by the ice-phase hydrogen abstraction reaction of benzene (i.e., C6H6 + OH → C6H5 + H2O if allowed at ∼10 K) could serve as the starting point for the formation of phenol in the gas phase by radiative association reaction C6H5 + OH → C6H5OH + h ν. The gas-phase reaction C6H6 + O → C6H5OH significantly contributes to the formation of phenol, when the ice-phase reaction C6H6 + OH → C6H5 + H2O is not considered at low temperature. Band 4 ALMA archival data of a hot molecular core, G10.47+0.03, are analyzed. It yields an upper limit on phenol abundance of 5.19 × 10−9. Our astrochemical model delivers an upper limit on phenol abundance of ∼2.20 × 10−9 in the hot molecular core, whereas its production in the dark cloud is not satisfactory.

During the transition phase from a prestellar to a protostellar cloud core, one or several protostars can form within a single gas core. The detailed physical processes of this transition, however, remain unclear. We present 1.3 mm dust continuum and molecular line observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array toward 43 protostellar cores in the Orion molecular cloud complex (λ Orionis, Orion B, and Orion A) with an angular resolution of ∼0.″35 (∼140 au). In total, we detect 13 binary/multiple systems. We derive an overall multiplicity frequency (MF) of 28% ± 4% and a companion star fraction (CSF) of 51% ± 6%, over a separation range of 300-8900 au. The median separation of companions is about 2100 au. The occurrence of stellar multiplicity may depend on the physical characteristics of the dense cores. Notably, those containing binary/multiple systems tend to show a higher gas density and Mach number than cores forming single stars. The integral-shaped filament of the Orion A giant molecular cloud (GMC), which has the highest gas density and hosts high-mass star formation in its central region (the Orion Nebula cluster), shows the highest MF and CSF among the Orion GMCs. In contrast, the λ Orionis GMC has a lower MF and CSF than the Orion B and Orion A GMCs, indicating that feedback from H ii regions may suppress the formation of multiple systems. We also find that the protostars comprising a binary/multiple system are usually at different evolutionary stages., T.L. acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) through grants No. 12073061 and No. 12122307, the International Partnership Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) through grant No. 114231KYSB20200009, the Shanghai Pujiang Program (20PJ1415500), and science research grants from the China Manned Space Project with no. CMS-CSST-2021-B06. K.T. was supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI (grant No. 20H05645). D.J. and J.d.F. are supported by NRC Canada and by NSERC Discovery Grants. C.-F.L. acknowledge grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (MoST 107-2119-M-001-040-MY3 and 110-2112-M-001-021-MY3) and Academia Sinica (Investigator Award AS-IA-108-M01). This research was carried out in part at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is operated by the California Institute of Technology under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NM0018D0004). J.-E.L. was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (grant No. 2021R1A2C1011718). J.H. acknowledges the support of NSFC projects 11873086 and U1631237. This work is sponsored (in part) by the CAS, through a grant to the CAS South America Center for Astronomy in Santiago, Chile. S.-L.Q. is supported by the NSFC with grant No. 12033005. S.Z. acknowledges the support of the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation through grant No. 2021M700248. L.B. gratefully acknowledges support by the ANID BASAL projects ACE210002 and FB210003. P.S. was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI No. 18H01259) of JSPS. V.-M.P. acknowledges support by the grant PID2020-115892GB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033.

We have selected six sources (G209.55–19.68S2, G205.46–14.56S1-A, G203.21–11.20W2, G191.90–11.21S, G205.46–14.56S3, and G206.93–16.61W2) from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array Survey of Orion Planck Galactic Cold Clumps (ALMASOP), in which these sources have been mapped in the CO (J = 2−1), SiO (J = 5−4), and C18O (J = 2−1) lines. These sources have high-velocity SiO jets surrounded by low-velocity CO outflows. The SiO jets consist of a chain of knots. These knots have been thought to be produced by semiperiodic variations in jet velocity. Therefore, we adopt a shock-forming model, which uses such variations to estimate the inclination angle and velocity of the jets. We also derive the inclination angle of the CO outflows using the wide-angle wind-driven shell model and find it to be broadly consistent with that of the associated SiO jets. In addition, we apply this shock-forming model to another three protostellar sources with SiO jets in the literature—HH 211, HH 212, and L1448C(N)—and find that their inclination angle and jet velocity are consistent with those previously estimated from proper-motion and radial-velocity studies.

Planck Galactic Cold Clumps (PGCCs) are contemplated to be the ideal targets to probe the early phases of star formation. We have conducted a survey of 72 young dense cores inside PGCCs in the Orion complex with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) at 1.3\,mm (band 6) using three different configurations (resolutions $\sim$ 0$\farcs$35, 1$\farcs$0, and 7$\farcs$0) to statistically investigate their evolutionary stages and sub-structures. We have obtained images of the 1.3\,mm continuum and molecular line emission ($^{12}$CO, and SiO) at an angular resolution of $\sim$ 0$\farcs$35 ($\sim$ 140\,au) with the combined arrays. We find 70 substructures within 48 detected dense cores with median dust-mass $\sim$ 0.093\,M$_{\sun}$ and deconvolved size $\sim$ 0$\farcs$27. Dense substructures are clearly detected within the central 1000\,au of four candidate prestellar cores. The sizes and masses of the substructures in continuum emission are found to be significantly reduced with protostellar evolution from Class\,0 to Class\,I. We also study the evolutionary change in the outflow characteristics through the course of protostellar mass accretion. A total of 37 sources exhibit CO outflows, and 20 ($>$50\%) show high-velocity jets in SiO. The CO velocity-extents ($\Delta$Vs) span from 4 to 110 km/s with outflow cavity opening angle width at 400\,au ranging from $[\Theta_{obs}]_{400}$ $\sim$ 0$\farcs$6 to 3$\farcs$9, which corresponds to 33$\fdg$4$-$125$\fdg$7. For the majority of the outflow sources, the $\Delta$Vs show a positive correlation with $[\Theta_{obs}]_{400}$, suggesting that as protostars undergo gravitational collapse, the cavity opening of a protostellar outflow widens and the protostars possibly generate more energetic outflows., Comment: 43 pages, 25 figures (14 in the main text, 9 in the appendix), accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series (ApJS)

The presence of complex organic molecules (COMs) in the interstellar medium (ISM) is of great interest since it may link to the origin and prevalence of life in the universe. Aiming to investigate the occurrence of COMs and their possible origins, we conducted a chemical census toward a sample of protostellar cores as part of the ALMA Survey of Orion Planck Galactic Cold Clumps (ALMASOP) project. We report the detection of 11 hot corino sources, which exhibit compact emissions from warm and abundant COMs, among 56 Class 0/I protostellar cores. All the hot corino sources discovered are likely Class 0 and their sizes of the warm region ($>$ 100 K) are comparable to 100 au. The luminosity of the hot corino sources exhibits positive correlations with the total number of methanol and the extent of its emissions. Such correlations are consistent with the thermal desorption picture for the presence of hot corino and suggest that the lower luminosity (Class 0) sources likely have a smaller region with COMs emissions. With the same sample selection method and detection criteria being applied, the detection rates of the warm methanol in the Orion cloud (15/37) and the Perseus cloud (28/50) are statistically similar when the cloud distances and the limited sample size are considered. Observing the same set of COM transitions will bring a more informative comparison between the cloud properties., 34 pages. 14 figures. 1 figure set. 1 machine-readable table. Accepted for publication in ApJ

Jets and outflows trace the accretion history of protostars. High-velocity molecular jets have been observed from several protostars in the early Class 0 phase of star formation, detected with the high-density tracer SiO. Until now, no clear jet has been detected with SiO emission from isolated evolved Class I protostellar systems. We report a prominent dense SiO jet from a Class I source G205S3 (HOPS-315: T bol ∼ 180 K, spectral index ∼0.417), with a moderately high mass-loss rate (∼0.59 × 10−6 M ⊙ yr−1) estimated from CO emission. Together, these features suggest that G205S3 is still in a high-accretion phase, similar to that expected of Class 0 objects. We compare G205S3 to a representative Class 0 system G206W2 (HOPS-399) and literature Class 0/I sources to explore the possible explanations behind the SiO emission seen at the later phase. We estimate a high inclination angle (∼40°) for G205S3 from CO emission, which may expose the infrared emission from the central core and mislead the spectral classification. However, the compact 1.3 mm continuum, C18O emission, location in the bolometric luminosity to submillimeter fluxes diagram, outflow force (∼3.26 × 10−5 M ⊙ km s−1 yr−1) are also analogous to that of Class I systems. We thus consider G205S3 to be at the very early phase of Class I, and in the late phase of high accretion. The episodic ejection could be due to the presence of an unknown binary, a planetary companion, or dense clumps, where the required mass for such high accretion could be supplied by a massive circumbinary disk.

We report high angular resolution observations of NGC1333 IRAS4A, a protostellar binary including A1 and A2, at 0.84 mm with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. From the continuum observations, we suggest that the dust emission from the A1 core is optically thick, and A2 is predominantly optically thin. The A2 core, exhibiting a forest of spectral lines including complex molecules, is a well known hot corino as suggested by previous works. More importantly, we report, for the first time, the solid evidence of complex organic molecules (COMs), including CH3OH, ^13CH3OH, CH2DOH, CH3CHO associated with the A1 core seen in absorption. The absorption features mostly arise from a compact region around the continuum peak position of the A1 core. Rather than originating from a larger common envelope surrounding the protobinary, the COM features are associated with individual cores A1 and A2. Considering the signatures observed in both continuum and spectral lines, we propose two possible scenarios for IRAS 4A1 - the COM absorption lines may arise from a hot-corino-like atmosphere at the surface of an optically-thick circumstellar disk around A1, or the absorption may arise from different layers of a temperature-stratified dense envelope., Comment: 20 pages, 7 figues, accepted on 16th Jan, ApJ

G31.41+0.31 is a well known chemically rich hot molecular core (HMC). Using Band 3 observations of Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), we have analyzed the chemical and physical properties of the source. We have identified methyl isocyanate (CH3NCO), a precursor of prebiotic molecules, towards the source. In addition to this, we have reported complex organic molecules (COMs) like methanol (CH3OH), methanethiol (CH3SH), and methyl formate (CH3OCHO). Additionally, we have used transitions from molecules like HCN, HCO+, SiO to trace the presence of infall and outflow signatures around the star-forming region. For the COMs, we have estimated the column densities and kinetic temperatures, assuming molecular excitation under local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) conditions. From the estimated kinetic temperatures of certain COMs, we found that multiple temperature components may be present in the HMC environment. Comparing the obtained molecular column densities between the existing observational results toward other HMCs, it seems that the COMs are favourably produced in the hot-core environment ($\sim 100$ K or higher). Though the spectral emissions towards G31.41+0.31 are not fully resolved, we find that CH$_3$NCO and other COMs are possibly formed on the grain/ice phase and populate the gas environment similar to other hot cores like Sgr B2, Orion KL, and G10.47+0.03, etc., Comment: 28 pages, 21 figures, 6 tables. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

Methyl carbamate CH$_3$OC(O)NH$_2$ is an isomer of glycine. Quantum chemical analyses show that methyl carbamate is more stable isomer than glycine. Because of this, there could be a higher chance for methyl carbamte to exist in the interstellar medium as compared to glycine. Despite immense searches, till now glycine has not been detected in the ISM, therefore it is worthwhile to search its isomer methyl carbamate. In this paper, we present the constraints of methyl carbamate formation under the interstellar conditions. Large complex organic molecules are favorably produced in hot-corino environments of low mass protostars. We for the first time carried out astrochemical modeling focusing on the formation of methyl carbamate in physical conditions similar to hot-corino objects. Consequently, we examined ALMA archival data for existing spectral line observations toward hot corinos NGC1333 IRAS 4A2 and IRAS 16293B. Within the common spectral range towards these sources, we found three features are possibly related to the spectral transitions of methyl carbamate and consequently estimate the upper limit of column densities. Results of chemical modeling are consistent with the observational upper limit of estimated column density/abundance toward the sources. This may hint the validation of the proposed formation mechanism. Future observations using telescope like ngVLA may confirm the presence of MC toward the hot corinos., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ

We report the detection of four new hot corino sources, G211.47-19.27S, G208.68-19.20N1, G210.49-19.79W and G192.12-11.10 from a survey study of Planck Galactic Cold Clumps in the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex with the Atacama Compact Array (ACA). Three sources had been identified as low mass Class 0 protostars in the Herschel Orion Protostar Survey (HOPS). One source in the lambda Orionis region is firstly reported as a protostellar core. We have observed abundant complex organic molecules (COMs), primarily methanol but also other oxygen-bearing COMs (in G211.47-19.27S and G208.68-19.20N1) and the molecule of prebiotic interest NH2CHO (in G211.47-19.27S), signifying the presence of hot corinos. While our spatial resolution is not sufficient for resolving most of the molecular emission structure, the large linewidth and high rotational temperature of COMs suggest that they likely reside in the hotter and innermost region immediately surrounding the protostar. In G211.47-19.27S, the D/H ratio of methanol ([CH2DOH]/[CH3OH]) and the 12C/13C ratio of methanol ([CH3OH]/[13CH3OH]) are comparable to those of other hot corinos. Hydrocarbons and long carbon-chain molecules such as c-C3H2 and HCCCN are also detected in the four sources, likely tracing the outer and cooler molecular envelopes., 37 pages, 51 figures, to be published in ApJ

The primordial atomic D/H ratio in the interstellar medium is ∼ 10−5. There is no known source in the Universe which produces atomic deuterium. Hence, the order of cosmic deuteration is similar to the primordial D/H ratio. Despite such low D/H ratio, many deuterated molecules are seen to be heavily fractionated compared to its hydrogenated counterpart. Interstellar chemistry and zero-point energy difference in deuterated species are the main cause of it. In this article, we discuss the deuterium fractionation of interstellar molecules under different molecular cloud condition, ranging from cold prestellar condition to hot protostar condition. We also discuss, how deuterium fractionation in interstellar molecules could be used as an evolutionary tracer of molecular clouds. As an example of an interstellar deuterated molecule, we discuss here an ALMA observation of deuterated formaldehyde in the low-mass protostar system HH212.

The title of the article is corrected as follows: Adsorption energies of H and H2: a quantum-chemical study

Among the most commonly existing thiol molecules, methanethiol and ethanethiol were discovered in the interstellar medium and identification of the next larger thiol molecule, propanethiol, is long awaited. By simulating icy astrochemical conditions and probing propanethiol ices under infrared spectroscopy we propose the use of SH stretching vibrations observed in the propanethiol molecular ice as a probe towards its identification in the interstellar medium. Though there are conformational changes within the ice (as observed in both VUV and IR spectra), the SH stretching vibration of propanethiol is observed to be unique among the set of thiol molecules, methanethiol and ethanethiol, which enables the detection of propanethiol ice in interstellar dust mantles using the James Webb Space Telescope.

The chemical composition of interstellar grain mantle is mostly dependent on adsorption energies of the surface species. Since hydrogen is widespread either in atomic or in molecular form, our aim in this work is to review (by quantum chemical calculations) the variation of the adsorption energies of H and H2 depending on the nature of the adsorbents. Choice of absorbents was based on relative abundances of interstellar materials. Since carbonaceous and silicate grains are very abundant, we used them as our absorbents. To save computational time, benzene (smallest structure sample of PAHs) is employed as carbonaceous material and for silicate grain, simple cluster of silicon dioxide (silica) (SiO2)3 is used. Around dense cloud regions, water is the major constituent of a grain mantle, therefore, usage of binding energies with bare grains is immaterial. To mimic the water as the adsorbents, we use a water-cluster ((H2O)6). We found that, for all types of adsorbents considered here, binding energies of H are always lower than those of H2, whereas, some of the experimental values are just the other way around. Assuming a steady state solution to the rate equation method, we also present the H2 formation efficiency window in various cases.

We present results of our study of PDS 11 binary system, which belongs to a rare class of isolated, high galactic latitude T Tauri stars. Our spectroscopic analysis reveals that PDS 11 is a M2-M2 binary system with both components showing similar H-alpha emission strength. Both the components appear to be accreting, and are classical T Tauri stars. The lithium doublet Li I 6708 Angstrom, a signature of youth, is present in the spectrum of PDS 11A, but not in PDS 11B. From the application of lithium depletion boundary age-dating method and a comparison with the Li I 6708 equivalent width distribution of moving groups, we estimated an age of 10-15 Myr for PDS 11A. Comparison with pre-main sequence evolutionary models indicates that PDS 11A is a 0.4 solar mass T Tauri star at a distance of 114-131 pc. PDS 11 system does not appear to be associated with any known star forming regions or moving groups. PDS 11 is a new addition, after TWA 30 and LDS 5606, to the interesting class of old, dusty, wide binary classical T Tauri systems in which both components are actively accreting., Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal (13 pages, 10 figures)

The central region of the massive star-forming cloud G33.92+0.11 was investigated with the emission from the deuterated species HDCS and DCN observed at sub-arcsecond angular resolution (~07) using ALMA. HDCS shows a distributed emission throughout the region, and its large relative abundance in the most recent star-forming region suggests that there still exists a significant amount of cold gas associated with the hot core region. A high degree of HDCS fractionation (HDCS/H2CS > 0.1) was found in the north region between star-forming clumps where the cold dense pre-collapse gas may still exist. DCN appears to have a good correlation with the continuum emission. This species traces both cold and warm dense gas probably by typical cold deuterium fractionation reactions and also by the lukewarm fractionation reactions. Near the densest cores where massive stars have already formed and dust mantles are evaporating, the DCN/HDCS abundance ratio was found to be larger by a factor of a few than other positions. This may suggest that the DCN abundance has been increased through the lukewarm fractionation processes in the gas phase.

Methyl acetate (CH_3COOCH_3) has been recently observed by IRAM 30 m radio telescope in Orion though the presence of its deuterated isotopomers is yet to be confirmed. We therefore study the properties of various forms of methyl acetate, namely, CH_3COOCH_3, CH_2DCOOCH_3 and CH_3COOCH_2D. Our simulation reveals that these species could be produced efficiently both in gas as well as in ice phases. Production of methyl acetate could follow radical-radical reaction between acetyl (CH_3CO) and methoxy (CH_3O) radicals. To predict abundances of CH_3COOCH_3 along with its two singly deuterated isotopomers and its two isomers (ethyl formate and hydroxyacetone), we prepare a gas-grain chemical network to study chemical evolution of these molecules. Since gas phase rate coefficients for methyl acetate and its related species were unknown, either we consider similar rate coefficients for similar types of reactions (by following existing data bases) or we carry out quantum chemical calculations to estimate the unknown rate coefficients. For the surface reactions, we use adsorption energies of reactants from some earlier studies. Moreover, we perform quantum chemical calculations to obtain spectral properties of methyl acetate in infrared and sub-millimeter regions. We prepare two catalog files for the rotational transitions of CH_2DCOOCH_3 and CH_3COOCH_2D in JPL format, which could be useful for their detection in regions of interstellar media where CH_3COOCH_3 has already been observed., 24 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

We carry out Monte-Carlo simulation to study deuterium enrichment of interstellar grain mantles under various physical conditions. Based on the physical properties, various types of clouds are considered. We find that in diffuse cloud regions, very strong radiation fields persists and hardly a few layers of surface species are formed. In translucent cloud regions with a moderate radiation field, significant number of layers would be produced and surface coverage is mainly dominated by photo-dissociation products such as, C,CH_3,CH_2D,OH and OD. In the intermediate dense cloud regions (having number density of total hydrogen nuclei in all forms ~ 2 x 10^4 cm^-3), water and methanol along with their deuterated derivatives are efficiently formed. For much higher density regions (~ 10^6 cm^-3), water and methanol productions are suppressed but surface coverage of CO,CO_2,O_2,O_3 are dramatically increased. We find a very high degree of fractionation of water and methanol. Observational results support a high fractionation of methanol but surprisingly water fractionation is found to be low. This is in contradiction with our model results indicating alternative routes for de-fractionation of water. Effects of various types of energy barriers are also studied. Moreover, we allow grain mantles to interact with various charged particles (such as H^+, Fe^+,S^+ and C^+) to study the stopping power and projected range of these charged particles on various target ices., Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures (Accepted to MNRAS, 2015)

Despite low elemental abundance of atomic deuterium in interstellar medium (ISM), observational evidences suggest that several species in gas-phase and in ices could be heavily fractionated. We explore various aspects of deuterium enrichment by constructing a chemical evolution model in gas and grain phases. Depending on various physical parameters, gas and grains are allowed to interact with each other through exchange of their chemical species. It is known that HCO+ and N2H+ are two abundant gas phase ions in ISM and their deuterium fractionation are generally used to predict degree of ionization in various regions of a molecular cloud. To have a more realistic estimation, we consider a density profile of a collapsing cloud. We present radial distributions of important interstellar molecules along with their deuterated isotopomers. We carry out quantum chemical simulation to study effects of isotopic substitution on spectral properties of these important interstellar species. We calculate vibrational (harmonic) frequency of the most important deuterated species (neutral & ions). Rotational and distortional constants of these molecules are also computed to predict rotational transitions of these species. We compare vibrational (harmonic) and rotational transitions as computed by us with existing observational, experimental and theoretical results. We hope that our results would assist observers in their quest of several hitherto unobserved deuterated species., 36 pages, 10 figures, 9 tables, 2015NewA...35...53D

It is well known fact that magnetic fields control the star formation rate in the ISM. If the gas is sufficiently conducting the magnetic flux passing through a given portion of gas remains constant. Under this flux freezing condition, there is a critical value of mass (MB) below which cloud could not collapse gravitationally. But this condition could not able to explain the formation of low mass stars; we need to consider the ambipolar diffusion into account. The external radiation field ionizes the gas cloud, which is frozen to magnetic field by the Lorentz force. Neutral species feel the effect of magnetic field by interacting with the ions. By considering the ambipolar diffusion into the hydrochemical model it is expected that the ion chemistry would change. As the ion chemistry changes it would largely affect the chemical composition of the collapsing cloud. We would study the chemical evolution of various molecular clouds by including effect of ambipolar diffusion in near future.

We present the results of on-the-fly mapping observations of 44 fields containing 107 SCUBA-2 cores in the emission lines of molecules, N$_2$H$^+$, HC$_3$N, and CCS at 82$-$94 GHz using the Nobeyama 45-m telescope. This study aimed at investigating the physical properties of cores that show high deuterium fractions and might be close to the onset of star formation. We found that the distributions of the N$_2$H$^+$ and HC$_3$N line emissions are approximately similar to that of 850-$\mu$m dust continuum emission, whereas the CCS line emission is often undetected or is distributed in a clumpy structure surrounding the peak position of the 850-$\mu$m dust continuum emission. Occasionally (12%), we observe the CCS emission which is an early-type gas tracer toward the young stellar object, probably due to local high excitation. Evolution toward star formation does not immediately affect nonthermal velocity dispersion., Comment: 45 pages, 15 figures, ApJS, in press