Deuterium fractionation and the degree of ionisation in massive clumps within infrared dark clouds

TL;DR

This study measures deuterium fractionation and ionisation in massive infrared dark cloud clumps, revealing low CO depletion, variable ionisation rates, and implications for star formation and clump evolution.

Contribution

First estimates of ionisation degree and cosmic-ray ionisation rate in massive IRDCs, linking chemical properties to star formation activity.

Findings

CO is not significantly depleted in observed clumps.

Deuterium fractionation decreases with increasing temperature.

Ionisation rates suggest active cosmic-ray influence in star-forming regions.

Abstract

(Abridged) We aim to determine the degrees of CO depletion, deuterium fractionation, and ionisation in a sample of seven massive clumps associated with IRDCs. The APEX telescope was used to observe the C17O(2-1), H13CO+(3-2), DCO+(3-2), N2H+(3-2), and N2D+(3-2) transitions towards the clumps. The CO molecules do not appear to be significantly depleted in the observed clumps. The DCO+/HCO+ and N2D+/N2H+ column density ratios are about 0.0002-0.014 and 0.002-0.028, respectively. The former ratio is found to decrease as a function of gas kinetic temperature. A simple chemical analysis suggests that the lower limit to the ionisation degree is in the range x(e)~10^{-8}-10^{-7}, whereas the estimated upper limits range from a few 10^{-6} up to ~10^{-4}. Lower limits to x(e) imply the cosmic-ray ionisation rate of H2 to lie between zeta_H2~10^{-17}-10^{-15} s^{-1}. These are the first estimates of x(e) and zeta_H2 towards massive IRDCs reported so far. The finding that CO is not depleted in the observed sources conforms to the fact that they show evidence of star formation activity which is believed to release CO from the icy grain mantles back into the gas phase. The observed degree of deuteration is lower than in low-mass starless cores and protostellar envelopes. Decreasing deuteration with increasing temperature is likely to reflect the clump evolution. On the other hand, the association with young high-mass stars could enhance zeta_H2 and x(e) above the levels usually found in low-mass star-forming regions. On the scale probed by our observations, ambipolar diffusion cannot be a main driver of clump evolution unless it occurs on timescales >>10^6 yr.