Complex organic molecules toward low-mass protostars and outflows

Details Complex organic molecules toward low-mass protostars and outflows Complex organic molecules toward low-mass protostars and outflows

May 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011iaus..280p.365v&link_type=abstract

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

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Complex gas-phase molecules in space are traditionally associated with hot cores in high-mass protostars, but have also been detected toward a small sample of low-mass protostars and outflows in the last decade. Models predict that complex organic molecules form in CH_3OH-rich ices and evaporate thermally and non-thermally (by UV photodesorption). Low-mass star forming regions are less complicated than the high-mass equivalents and are therefore a better test-bed for theories on complex molecule formation. Because of the small sample of low-mass sources with complex molecule detections (six in total) it has so far been difficult to ascertain whether there is a real difference between the chemical evolution in low- and high-mass protostars and whether predictions from laboratory experiments and models are supported by observations. In order to enlarge the sample of complex molecule detections towards low-mass protostars, three sight-lines likely to be rich in complex organics were identified with a recently published CH_3OH gas map of a Serpens core. These lines of sight - SMM1, SMM4 and SMM4-W - were observed with the IRAM 30m telescope with three different settings containing strong lines of HCOOCH_3, CH_3CHO, CH_3OCH_3, C_2H_5OH and other complex organics. CH_3CHO and CH_3OCH_3 were detected toward all sources, HCOOCH_3 toward SMM1 and SMM4-W but C_2H_5OH not at all. Abundances range between 0.8 and 10% with respect to CH_3OH, which compares well with observations of other low-mass sources. The HCOOCH_3 and CH_3OCH_3 abundances vary by an order of magnitude from source to source, indicative of formation pathways that depend on the local thermal and radiation history. In contrast, the CH_3CHO abundances are almost constant, suggesting an early, perhaps prestellar formation pathway. In general complex organic abundances seem similar toward low-mass protostars and high-mass hot cores, except for a higher fraction of CH_3OCH_3 toward hot cores, suggestive of a common formation pathway through ice photochemistry.

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