Astrochemistry of Sub-Millimeter Sources in Orion: Studying the Variations of Molecular Tracers with Changing Physical Conditions

TL;DR

This study investigates how molecular tracers vary with physical conditions in Orion's sub-millimeter sources, revealing temperature and density dependencies that inform astrochemical models.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive analysis of multiple molecular tracers across diverse physical environments in Orion, linking molecular abundances to source energetics.

Findings

Higher molecular abundances correlate with increased source temperature.

Most sources exhibit CO abundance below typical molecular cloud values.

High densities (>10^7 cm^-3) are confirmed in protostellar sources.

Abstract

Cornerstone molecules (CO, H_2CO, CH_3OH, HCN, HNC, CN, CS, SO) were observed toward seven sub-millimeter bright sources in the Orion molecular cloud in order to quantify the range of conditions for which individual molecular line tracers provide physical and chemical information. Five of the sources observed were protostellar, ranging in energetics from 1 - 500L_sun, while the other two sources were located at a shock front and within a photodissociation region (PDR). Statistical equilibrium calculations were used to deduce from the measured line strengths the physical conditions within each source and the abundance of each molecule. In all cases except the shock and the PDR, the abundance of CO with respect to H_2 appears significantly below (factor of ten) the general molecular cloud value of 10^-4. {Formaldehyde measurements were used to estimate a mean temperature and density for the gas in each source. Evidence was found for trends between the derived abundance of CO, H_2CO, CH_3OH, and CS and the energetics of the source, with hotter sources having higher abundances.} Determining whether this is due to a linear progression of abundance with temperature or sharp jumps at particular temperatures will require more detailed modeling. The observed methanol transitions require high temperatures (T>50 K), and thus energetic sources, within all but one of the observed protostellar sources. The same conclusion is obtained from observations of the CS 7-6 transition. Analysis of the HCN and HNC 4-3 transitions provides further support for high densities n> 10^7 cm^-3 in all the protostellar sources.