The SOMA MM Survey. I. An Astrochemical Census of Massive Protostars
D. Gigli, P. Gorai, C.Y. Law, J. C. Tan, M. Bonfand, T. Rahman, Y. Zhang, K. Taniguchi, R. Fedriani, Z. Telkamp, V. Rosero, and G. Cosentino

TL;DR
This study analyzes the chemical composition of 22 massive protostars to understand how chemical evolution correlates with physical properties, revealing links between molecular complexity, temperature, and evolutionary stage.
Contribution
It provides the first comprehensive chemical census of massive protostars using ALMA data, identifying correlations between chemical signatures and physical parameters.
Findings
High chemical complexity in some sources with >100 molecular transitions
Correlation between excitation temperature and evolutionary stage
Presence of hot cores with T_ex > 100 K indicating thermal desorption
Abstract
During massive star formation, dense gas undergoes chemical evolution, producing both simple and complex organic molecules (COMs) characteristic of hot molecular cores. How this evolution depends on protostellar physical properties remains unclear. We investigate the chemical content of 22 well-studied massive protostars from the SOFIA Massive (SOMA) Star Formation survey, aiming to identify correlations between chemical and physical parameters. We analyzed Atacama Compact Array and Total Power 1.3 mm (Band 6) data, deriving column densities, line widths, and excitation temperatures of multiple molecular species by modeling detected lines under local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) using MADCUBA. Spectra show 35 species, from simple molecules (e.g., CO, SO, SiO) to complex organic molecules (COMs), with seven sources exhibiting high chemical complexity (> 100 transitions). Average…
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