Gas-phase Elemental abundances in Molecular cloudS (GEMS) XI. The evolution of HCN, HNC, and N2H+ isotopic ratios in starless cores

TL;DR

This study investigates isotopic ratios of HCN, HNC, and N2H+ in 23 starless cores, revealing their potential as evolutionary tracers and insights into nitrogen fractionation during star formation.

Contribution

It provides new measurements of isotopic ratios in starless cores and models their chemical evolution, highlighting differences between core environments and stages.

Findings

Deuterated compounds detected in all cores.

Chemical ages estimated at 0.2-0.5 Myr.

Nitrogen isotopic ratios differ between molecules.

Abstract

Isotopic ratios have been used as chemical diagnostics to investigate the origin of the material in the Solar System. We have determined the HCN, HNC, and N2H+ isotopic ratios and the chemical age in a large sample of 23 starless cores located in different environments. This work uses IRAM 30m data to constrain the D/H ratio of HCN, HNC, and N2H+ as well as the 14N/15N ratio of HCN and HNC. The observed abundances have been modeled using the chemical code DNAUTILUS 2.0. Deuterated compounds are detected in all of our sample cores, with average DNC/HNC, DCN/HCN, and N2D+/N2H+ values of 0.054$\pm$0.019, 0.036$\pm$0.033, and 0.15$\pm$0.11, respectively. The deuterium fractions (Dfrac) show a weak correlation with temperature and a large scatter that reflects that other factors such as core evolution could also play a significant role. Our chemical model is able to reproduce all the observed values with 0.2-0.3 Myr in Taurus and 0.3-0.5 Myr in Perseus and Orion. The 14N/15N isotopic ratio is found to be different between HCN/HC15N (430$\pm$120) and HNC/H15NC (296$\pm$64). We find no correlation between these ratios and the deuterium fractions, but we report a weak correlation with temperature. The Dfrac of HCN, HNC, and N2H+ can be used as evolutionary tracers of starless cores as long as the physical parameters are well constrained. The HCN/HC15N and HNC/H15NC ratios are not correlated with Dfrac, suggesting that the detected variations are not correlated with the core evolutionary stage. The average value of the HCN/HC15N ratio in our sample is significantly higher than the values measured in protostars and protoplanetary disks, possibly indicating that nitrogen fractionation processes are taking place during the protostellar phase.