The Perseus ALMA Chemical Survey (PEACHES). III. Sulfur-bearing species tracing accretion and ejection processes in young protostars

TL;DR

This study surveys sulfur-bearing molecules in 50 young protostars using ALMA, revealing their roles in accretion, outflows, and chemical evolution, and highlighting sulfur depletion influenced by UV radiation.

Contribution

It provides the first unbiased, high-resolution survey of sulfur species in protostars, linking molecular detection to physical processes and evolutionary stages.

Findings

SO/34SO ratio varies with COM richness

SO2 traces warm gas and different physical mechanisms

Sulfur depletion correlates with UV radiation exposure

Abstract

(Abridged) Sulfur chemistry is poorly understood in the process of low-mass star and planet formation, where the main carriers of sulfur are still unknown. Despite the fact that simple S-bearing molecules are usually detected toward embedded sources, large surveys of S-bearing molecules with high angular resolution and sensitive observations are currently lacking. The goal of this work is to present an unbiased survey of simple sulfur-bearing species in protostars and provide new statistics. In addition, we investigate the role of S-bearing molecules in accretion processes and the connection between (non-)detection of complex organic molecules (COMs) and S-related species. We present the observations of sulfur-bearing species that are part of the Perseus ALMA Chemical Survey (PEACHES). We analyzed a total of 50 Class 0/I sources with an average angular resolution of about 0.6" (~180 au) in ALMA band 6. We present detection rates for CS, SO, 34SO, and SO2. The SO/34SO ratio is lower than the canonical value of 22 and the lowest values are found for those sources rich in COMs. This ratio, therefore, seems to be a good tracer of the inner high-density envelope. The detection of multiple COMs seems to be related to the presence of collimated outflows and SO2 emission seems to trace the warm gas in those sources where CH3OH is also detected. The SO2 abundances toward the PEACHES sample are, on average, two orders of magnitude lower than values from the Ophiuchus star-forming region and comparable with sources in Taurus, suggesting that the sulfur depletion in the gas-phase could depend on the external UV radiation. Finally, the SO2 emission detected in different evolutionary stages seems to arise from different physical mechanisms: high column density of warm material in Class 0 sources, shocks in Class I/II, and exposure to UV radiation from the protostar in more evolved Class II disks.