Chemical evolution during the formation of a protoplanetary disk

TL;DR

This study models the chemical evolution from prestellar cores to protoplanetary disks using 3D MHD simulations and chemical modeling, revealing how initial compositions influence disk chemistry and the formation of complex organic molecules.

Contribution

It combines 3D nonideal MHD simulations with detailed chemical modeling to track chemical evolution during disk formation, highlighting the impact of initial core composition.

Findings

Molecular distributions reflect temperature sensitivity.

Complex organic molecules increase significantly during collapse.

Many molecules retain similar abundances from core to disk.

Abstract

(Abridged) The aim of this study is to investigate the chemical evolution from the prestellar phase to the formation of the disk, and to determine the impact that the chemical composition of the cold and dense core has on the final composition of the disk. We performed 3D nonideal magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of a dense core collapse using the adaptive-mesh-refinement RAMSES code. For each particle ending in the young rotationally supported disk, we ran chemical simulations with the three-phase gas-grain chemistry code Nautilus. Two different sets of initial abundances, which are characteristic of cold cores, were considered. The final distributions of the abundances of common species were compared to each other, as well as with the initial abundances of the cold core. We find that the spatial distributions of molecules reflect their sensitivity to the temperature distribution. The main carriers of the chemical elements in the disk are usually the same as the ones in the cold core, except for the S-bearing species, where HS is replaced by H$_2$S$_3$, and the P-bearing species, where atomic P leads to the formation of PO, PN, HCP, and CP. However, the abundances of less abundant species change over time. This is especially the case for "large" complex organic molecules (COMs) such as CH$_3$CHO, CH$_3$NH$_2$, CH$_3$OCH$_3$, and HCOOCH$_3$ which see their abundances significantly increase during the collapse. These COMs often present similar abundances in the disk despite significantly different abundances in the cold core. In contrast, the abundances of many radicals decrease with time. A significant number of species still show the same abundances in the cold core and the disk, which indicates efficient formation of these molecules in the cold core. This includes H$_2$O, H$_2$CO, HNCO, and "small" COMs such as CH$_3$OH, CH$_3$CN, and NH$_2$CHO.