Deuterium fractionation of the starless core L 1498

TL;DR

This study provides a detailed 3D chemical and physical profile of the starless core L 1498, revealing rapid formation and offering insights into core contraction and deuteration processes.

Contribution

First detection of ortho-H$_2$D$^+$ in L 1498 and comprehensive modeling of its density, temperature, and deuteration profiles to understand core formation.

Findings

Peak density of 1.6×10^5 cm^-3

Core temperature of 7.5 K

Deuteration ratio of 0.27

Abstract

Molecular deuteration is commonly seen in starless cores and is expected to occur on a timescale comparable to that of the core contraction. Thus, the deuteration serves as a chemical clock, allowing us to investigate dynamical theories of core formation. We aim to provide a 3D cloud description for the starless core L 1498 located in the nearby low-mass star-forming region Taurus, and explore the possible core formation mechanism of L 1498. We carried out non-local thermal equilibrium radiative transfer with multi-transition observations of the high-density tracer N$_2$H$^+$ to derive the density and temperature profiles of the L 1498 core. Combining with the spectral observations of the deuterated species, ortho-H$_2$D$^+$, N$_2$D$^+$, and DCO$^+$, we derived the abundance profiles for observed species and performed chemical modeling of the deuteration profiles across L 1498 to constrain the contraction timescale. We present the first ortho-H$_2$D$^+$ (1$_{10}$-1$_{11}$) detection toward L 1498. We find a peak molecular hydrogen density of $1.6_{-0.3}^{+3.0}\times10^{5}$~cm$^{-3}$, a temperature of 7.5$_{-0.5}^{+0.7}$~K, and a N$_2$H$^+$ deuteration of 0.27$_{-0.15}^{+0.12}$ in the center. We derive a lower limit of the core age for L 1498 of 0.16~Ma which is compatible with the typical free-fall time, indicating that L 1498 likely formed rapidly.