Molecular Distributions of the Disk/Envelope System of L483: Principal Component Analysis for the Image Cube Data

TL;DR

This study uses principal component analysis on ALMA data to analyze molecular distributions and velocity structures in the disk/envelope system of protostar L483, revealing chemical differentiation and spatial characteristics.

Contribution

First application of PCA-3D to molecular line cube data in a protostellar system, providing comprehensive insights into molecular distributions and velocity structures.

Findings

Oxygen-bearing complex molecules correlate with overall structure

C18O and SiO show distinct distribution patterns

Chemical differentiation between organic molecules is revealed

Abstract

Unbiased understandings of molecular distributions in a disk/envelope system of a low-mass protostellar source are crucial for investigating physical and chemical evolution processes. We have observed 23 molecular lines toward the Class 0 protostellar source L483 with ALMA and have performed principal component analysis (PCA) for their cube data (PCA-3D) to characterize their distributions and velocity structures in the vicinity of the protostar. The sum of the contributions of the first three components is 63.1 %. Most oxygen-bearing complex-organic-molecule lines have a large correlation with the first principal component (PC1), representing the overall structure of the disk/envelope system around the protostar. Contrary, the C18O and SiO emissions show small and negative correlations with PC1. The NH2CHO lines stand out conspicuously at the second principal component (PC2), revealing more compact distribution. The HNCO lines and the high excitation line of CH3OH have a similar trend for PC2 to NH2CHO. On the other hand, C18O is well correlated with the third principal component (PC3). Thus, PCA-3D enables us to elucidate the similarities and the differences of the distributions and the velocity structures among molecular lines simultaneously, so that the chemical differentiation between the oxygen-bearing complex organic molecules and the nitrogen-bearing ones is revealed in this source. We have also conducted PCA for the moment 0 maps (PCA-2D) and that for the spectral line profiles (PCA-1D). While they can extract part of characteristics of the molecular-line data, PCA-3D is essential for comprehensive understandings. Characteristic features of the molecular-line distributions are discussed on NH2CHO.