Interstellar Glycolaldehyde, Methyl Formate, and Acetic Acid. II. Chemical Modeling of the Bimodal Abundance Pattern in NGC 6334I

TL;DR

This study uses chemical modeling to explain the bimodal abundance pattern of methyl formate and glycolaldehyde in NGC 6334I, revealing how physical conditions influence molecular ratios in star-forming regions.

Contribution

It introduces a three-phase gas-grain chemical model to explain the bimodal abundance ratios of isomers in a star-forming region, highlighting the role of physical parameters and surface chemistry.

Findings

High densities and long desorption times cause high MF:GA ratios.

Surface reactions and binding energies determine isomer destruction.

Elevated cosmic-ray rates affect COM production and ratios.

Abstract

Gas-phase abundance ratios between \ce{C2H4O2} isomers methyl formate (MF), glycolaldehyde (GA), and acetic acid (AA) are typically on the order of 100:10:1 in star-forming regions. However, an unexplained divergence from this neat relationship was recently observed towards a collection of sources in the massive protocluster NGC 6334I; some sources exhibited extreme MF:GA ratios, producing a bimodal behavior between different sources, while the MF:AA ratio remained stable. Here, we use a three-phase gas-grain hot-core chemical model to study the effects of a large parameter space on the simulated \ce{C2H4O2} abundances. A combination of high gas densities and long timescales during ice-mantle desorption ($\sim$125--160~K) appears to be the physical cause of the high MF:GA ratios. The main chemical mechanism for GA destruction occurring under these conditions is the rapid adsorption and reaction of atomic H with GA on the ice surfaces before it has time to desorb. The different binding energies of MF and GA on water ice are crucial to the selectivity of the surface destruction mechanism; individual MF molecules rapidly escape the surface when exposed by water loss, while GA lingers and is destroyed by H. Moderately elevated cosmic-ray ionization rates can increase absolute levels of COM production in the ices and increase the MF:GA ratio, but extreme values are destructive for gas-phase COMs. We speculate that the high densities required for extreme MF:GA ratios could be evidence of COM emission dominated by COMs desorbing within a circumstellar disk.