Detection of N$_2$D$^+$ in a protoplanetary disk

TL;DR

This paper reports the first detection of N$_2$D$^+$ in a protoplanetary disk, revealing high deuterium fractionation and suggesting its potential as a probe for disk chemistry and physical conditions.

Contribution

It presents the first detection of N$_2$D$^+$ in a protoplanetary disk and demonstrates its usefulness for studying deuterium chemistry and disk environments.

Findings

Detected N$_2$D$^+$ in a protoplanetary disk for the first time.

Estimated a high D/H ratio of 0.3--0.5 in the disk.

High deuterium fractionation aligns with model predictions.

Abstract

Observations of deuterium fractionation in the solar system, and in interstellar and circumstellar material, are commonly used to constrain the formation environment of volatiles. Toward protoplanetary disks, this approach has been limited by the small number of detected deuterated molecules, i.e. DCO$^+$ and DCN. Based on ALMA Cycle 2 observations toward the disk around the T Tauri star AS 209, we report the first detection of N$_2$D$^+$ (J=3-2) in a protoplanetary disk. These data are used together with previous Submillimeter Array observations of N$_2$H$^+$ (J=3-2) to estimate a disk-averaged D/H ratio of 0.3--0.5, an order of magnitude higher than disk-averaged ratios previously derived for DCN/HCN and DCO$^+$/HCO$^+$ around other young stars. The high fractionation in N$_2$H$^+$ is consistent with model predictions. The presence of abundant N$_2$D$^+$ toward AS 209 also suggests that N$_2$D$^+$ and the N$_2$D$^+$/N$_2$H$^+$ ratio can be developed into effective probes of deuterium chemistry, kinematics, and ionization processes outside the CO snowline of disks.