Modeling the chemical evolution of a collapsing prestellar core in two spatial dimensions

TL;DR

This study models the chemical evolution of a collapsing prestellar core in two dimensions, tracking molecular abundances and ice compositions to better interpret observations and inform disk formation models.

Contribution

It introduces a 2D hydrodynamical model with trace particles to simulate chemical evolution during core collapse and disk formation, including gas-grain interactions and surface reactions.

Findings

Fractional abundances of certain molecules match observations with grain surface reactions.

Mantle composition is best reproduced with surface reactions included.

Initial abundances differ from dark interstellar clouds, affecting disk modeling.

Abstract

The physical conditions in a collapsing cloud can be traced by observations of molecular lines. To correctly interpret these observations the abundance distributions of the observed species need to be derived. The chemistry in a collapsing molecular cloud is not in a steady state as the density and temperature evolve. We therefore need to follow chemical reactions, both in the gas phase and on dust grains, as well as gas-grain interactions, to predict the abundance distributions. Our aim is to model the abundances of molecules, in the gas phase and on grain mantles in the form of ice, from prestellar core collapse to disk formation. We use a 2-dimensional hydrodynamical simulation as a physical model from which we take the density, temperature, and the flow of the gas. Trace particles, moving along with the gas, are used to follow the chemistry during prestellar core collapse and disk formation. The evolution of the abundances and the composition of ices on grain mantles were compared to observations. We also investigated the initial abundances to be adopted in more detailed modeling of protoplanetary disks by following the chemical evolution of trace particles accreting onto the disk. Fractional abundances of HCO+, N2H+, H2CO, HC3N, and CH3OH from our model with grain surface reactions provide a good match to observations, while abundances of CO, CS, SO, HCN, and HNC show better agreement without grain surface reactions. The observed mantle composition of dust grains is best reproduced when we include surface reactions. The initial chemical abundances to be used for detailed modeling of a protoplanetary disk are found to be different from those in dark interstellar clouds. Ices with a binding energy lower than about 1200 K sublimate before accreting onto the disk, while those with a higher binding energy do not.