The $^{12}$CO$_2$ and $^{13}$CO$_2$ Absorption Bands as Tracers of the Thermal History of Interstellar Icy Grain Mantles

TL;DR

This study investigates how the infrared spectral features of CO2 in icy grains can reveal their thermal history, focusing on the temperature and concentration dependence of CO2 segregation in interstellar ices, with implications for astronomical observations.

Contribution

It provides the first systematic measurement of concentration dependence of CO2 segregation and proposes a new spectral mode for tracing thermal history using $^{13}$CO$_2$ features.

Findings

Pure crystalline CO$_2$ forms only if CO$_2$:H$_2$O ratio exceeds 23%.

The $^{13}$CO$_2$ asymmetric stretching mode's position and width vary linearly with temperature.

The $^{13}$CO$_2$ mode is insensitive to CO$_2$ concentration, making it a reliable thermal tracer.

Abstract

Analyses of infrared signatures of CO$_2$ in water dominated ices in the ISM can give information on the physical state of CO$_2$ in icy grains and on the thermal history of the ices themselves. In many sources, CO$_2$ was found in the `pure' crystalline form, as signatured by the splitting in the bending mode absorption profile. To a large extent, pure CO$_2$ is likely to have formed from segregation of CO$_2$ from a CO$_2$:H$_2$O mixture during thermal processing. Previous laboratory studies quantified the temperature dependence of segregation, but no systematic measurement of the concentration dependence of segregation is available. In this study, we measured both the temperature dependence and concentration dependence of CO$_2$ segregation in CO$_2$:H$_2$O mixtures, and found that no pure crystalline CO$_2$ forms if the CO$_2$:H$_2$O ratio is less than 23%. Therefore the segregation of CO$_2$ is not always a good thermal tracer of the ice mantle. We found that the position and width of the broad component of the asymmetric stretching vibrational mode of $^{13}$CO$_2$ change linearly with the temperature of CO$_2$:H$_2$O mixtures, but are insensitive to the concentration of CO$_2$. We recommend using this mode, which will be observable towards low mass protostellar envelopes and dense clouds with the James Webb Space Telescope, to trace the thermal history of the ice mantle, especially when segregated CO$_2$ is unavailable. We used the laboratory measured $^{13}$CO$_2$ profile to analyze the ISO-SWS observations of ice mantles towards Young Stellar Objects, and the astrophysical implications are discussed.