Chemical variations across the TMC-1 boundary: molecular tracers from translucent phase to dense phase

TL;DR

This study explores the chemical evolution of gas and grain surface species across the TMC-1 filament, revealing how molecular compositions change from translucent to dense phases and how initial elemental ratios influence observed molecules.

Contribution

It provides a detailed comparison of observed molecular abundances with chemical models, highlighting the impact of initial elemental ratios and cloud density on chemical evolution.

Findings

Over 90 molecules identified in TMC-1 CP.

H2O ice dominates at A_V > 4 mag, CO2 ice at A_V < 4 mag.

Predicted significant decrease of CO ice around A_V 4-5 mag.

Abstract

We investigated the chemical evolutions of gas phase and grain surface species across the Taurus molecular cloud-1 (TMC-1) filament from translucent phase to dense phase. By comparing observations with modeling results from an up-to-date chemical network, we examined the conversion processes for the carbon-, oxygen-, nitrogen- and sulfur-bearing species, i.e.from their initial atomic form to their main molecular reservoir form both in the gas phase and on the grain surface. The conversion processes were found to depend on the species and A$_V$. The effect of initial carbon to oxygen elemental abundances ratio (C/O) by varying O on the chemistry was explored, and an initial carbon elemental abundance of 2.5 $\times$ 10$^{-4}$ and a C/O ratio of 0.5 could best reproduce the abundances of most observed molecules at TMC-1 CP, where more than 90 molecules have been identified. Based on the TMC-1 condition, we predicted a varied grain ice composition during the evolutions of molecular clouds, with H$_2$O ice as the dominant ice composition at A$_V$ $>$ 4 mag, CO$_2$ ice as the dominant ice composition at A$_V$ $<$ 4 mag, while CO ice severely decreased at A$_V$ around 4--5 mag.