Deep Search for Phosphine in a Prestellar Core
Kenji Furuya, Takashi Shimonishi

TL;DR
This study used ALMA observations to search for phosphine in a prestellar core, setting upper limits on its abundance and suggesting most phosphorus exists in refractory forms, impacting theories of phosphorus chemistry in star formation.
Contribution
First sensitive search for phosphine in a prestellar core, providing upper limits on its abundance and constraining phosphorus chemical forms in star-forming regions.
Findings
Phosphine was not detected, with an upper abundance limit of 5×10⁻¹².
The volatile phosphorus abundance in L1544 is significantly lower than in comet 67P.
Most phosphorus in the core likely exists in refractory forms.
Abstract
Understanding in which chemical forms phosphorus exists in star- and planet-forming regions and how phosphorus is delivered to planets are of great interest from the viewpoint of the origin of life on Earth. Phosphine (PH3) is thought to be a key species to understanding phosphorus chemistry, but never has been detected in star- and planet-forming regions. We performed sensitive observations of the ortho-PH3 transition (266.944 GHz) toward the low-mass prestellar core L1544 with the ACA stand-alone mode of ALMA. The line was not detected down to 3 levels in 0.07 km s channels of 18 mK. The non-detection provides the upper limit to the gas-phase PH3 abundance of with respect to H2 in the central part of the core. Based on the gas-ice astrochemical modeling, we find the scaling relationship between the gas-phase PH3 abundance and the volatile…
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Taxonomy
TopicsAstro and Planetary Science · Origins and Evolution of Life · Molecular Spectroscopy and Structure
