FAUST I. The hot corino at the heart of the prototypical Class I protostar L1551 IRS5

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of a hot corino in a Class I protostar, L1551 IRS5, revealing chemical similarities with earlier Class 0 hot corinos and providing insights into early planetary system chemistry.

Contribution

The first detection of a hot corino in a Class I protostar using ALMA, expanding understanding of hot corino evolution from Class 0 to I phases.

Findings

Detected methanol, methyl formate, and ethanol lines in L1551 IRS5.

Constrained gas temperature (~100 K) and density (≥1.5×10^8 cm^-3).

Found chemical abundances similar to Class 0 hot corinos.

Abstract

The study of hot corinos in Solar-like protostars has been so far mostly limited to the Class 0 phase, hampering our understanding of their origin and evolution. In addition, recent evidence suggests that planet formation starts already during Class I phase, which, therefore, represents a crucial step in the future planetary system chemical composition. Hence, the study of hot corinos in Class I protostars has become of paramount importance. Here we report the discovery of a hot corino towards the prototypical Class I protostar L1551 IRS5, obtained within the ALMA Large Program FAUST. We detected several lines from methanol and its isopotologues ($^{13}$CH$_{\rm 3}$OH and CH$_{\rm 2}$DOH), methyl formate and ethanol. Lines are bright toward the north component of the IRS5 binary system, and a possible second hot corino may be associated with the south component. The methanol lines non-LTE analysis constrains the gas temperature ($\sim$100 K), density ($\geq$1.5$\times$10$^{8}$ cm$^{-3}$), and emitting size ($\sim$10 au in radius). All CH$_{\rm 3}$OH and $^{13}$CH$_{\rm 3}$OH lines are optically thick, preventing a reliable measure of the deuteration. The methyl formate and ethanol relative abundances are compatible with those measured in Class 0 hot corinos. Thus, based on the present work, little chemical evolution from Class 0 to I hot corinos occurs.