Carbon Isotope and Isotopomer Fractionation in Dense Molecular Cloud Cores

Details Carbon Isotope and Isotopomer Fractionation in Dense Molecular Cloud Cores Carbon Isotope and Isotopomer Fractionation in Dense Molecular Cloud Cores

May 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011iaus..280p.165f&link_type=abstract

The Molecular Universe, Posters from the proceedings of the 280th Symposium of the International Astronomical Union held in Tole

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Observations of 13C species would be useful to investigate chemistry of carbon-bearing species. Recent observations in TMC-1 indicate that the abundances are different among carbon isotopomers of the same species. For instance, Takano et al. (1998) found that HCC13CN is more abundant than HC13CCN and H13CCCN, which indicates the three carbon atoms are not equivalent in HC_3N. Sakai et al. (2007; 2010) reported the abundance ratios of C13CS/13CCS and CCH/13CCH to be 4.2 and 1.6, respectively. Again, two carbon atoms are not equivalent in CCS and CCH. Sakai et al. (2007; 2010) discussed an origin of these anomalies and pointed out two possibilities: (i) fractionation during the formation of the species and (ii) rearrangements of the 13C position after the formation of molecules by isotopomer-exchange reactions. We construct a gas-grain chemical network model which includes carbon isotopes (12C and 13C) and isotopomers in order to investigate the evolution of molecular abundances, the carbon isotope ratios (12CX/13CX) and the isotopomer ratios (12C13CX/13C12CX) of CCH and CCS in dense molecular cores. We confirm that the isotope ratios of molecules, both in the gas phase and on grain surfaces, mostly depend on whether the species is formed from the carbon atom (ion) or the CO molecule; the isotope ratio is larger than the elemental abundance ratio of 12C/13C if the species is formed from the carbon atom, while the ratio is smaller if the species is formed from the CO molecule (cf. Langer et al. 1984). We successfully reproduce the observed C13CH/13CCH ratio in TMC-1 by considering the isotopomer-exchange reaction, 13CCH + H rightleftharpoons C13CH + H + 8.1 K. However, the C13CS/13CCS ratio remains lower than observed in TMC-1. We then assume the isotopomer-exchange reaction catalyzed by the H atom, 13CCS + H rightleftharpoons C13CS + H + 17.4 K. In the model with this reaction, the observed C13CS/13CCS, CCS/C13CS and CCS/13CCS ratios can be reproduced simultaneously.

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