ATLASGAL-selected massive clumps in the inner Galaxy: I. CO depletion and isotopic ratios

TL;DR

This study investigates CO depletion and isotopic ratios in 102 massive clumps from the ATLASGAL survey, revealing how depletion varies with evolutionary stage, density, and physical parameters, and analyzing isotopic ratio gradients across the Galaxy.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of CO depletion factors and isotopic ratios in massive star-forming clumps, linking depletion to evolutionary stages and physical conditions.

Findings

Higher CO depletion factors are found in colder, less evolved clumps.

Depletion regions are estimated to be a few tenths of a parsec in radius.

Mass estimates may be overestimated due to CO depletion effects.

Abstract

In the low-mass regime, it is found that the gas-phase abundances of C-bearing molecules in cold starless cores rapidly decrease with increasing density, as the molecules form mantles on dust grains. We study CO depletion in 102 massive clumps selected from the ATLASGAL 870 micron survey, and investigate its correlation with evolutionary stage and with the physical parameters of the sources. Moreover, we study the gradients in [12C]/[13C] and [18O]/[17O] isotopic ratios across the inner Galaxy, and the virial stability of the clumps. We use low-J emission lines of CO isotopologues and the dust continuum emission to infer the depletion factor fD. RATRAN one-dimensional models were also used to determine fD and to investigate the presence of depletion above a density threshold. The isotopic ratios and optical depth were derived with a Bayesian approach. We find a significant number of clumps with a large fD, up to ~20. Larger values are found for colder clumps, thus for earlier evolutionary phases. For massive clumps in the earliest stages of evolution we estimate the radius of the region where CO depletion is important to be a few tenths of a pc. Clumps are found with total masses derived from dust continuum emission up to ~20 times higher than the virial mass, especially among the less evolved sources. These large values may in part be explained by the presence of depletion: if the CO emission comes mainly from the low-density outer layers, the molecules may be subthermally excited, leading to an overestimate of the dust masses. CO depletion in high-mass clumps seems to behave as in the low-mass regime, with less evolved clumps showing larger values for the depletion than their more evolved counterparts, and increasing for denser sources. The C and O isotopic ratios are consistent with previous determinations, and show a large intrinsic scatter.