Energetic radiation and the sulfur chemistry of protostellar envelopes: Submillimeter interferometry of AFGL 2591

CONTEXT: The chemistry in the inner few thousand AU of accreting envelopes around young stellar objects is predicted to vary greatly with far-UV and X-ray irradiation by the central star. Aim We search for molecular tracers of high-energy irradiation by the protostar in the hot inner envelope. METHODS: The Submillimeter Array (SMA) has observed the high-mass star forming region AFGL 2591 in lines of CS, SO, HCN, HCN(v2=1), and HC15N with 0.6" resolution at 350 GHz probing radial scales of 600-3500 AU for an assumed distance of 1 kpc. The SMA observations are compared with the predictions of a chemical model fitted to previous single-dish observations. RESULTS: The CS and SO main peaks are extended in space at the FWHM level, as predicted in the model assuming protostellar X-rays. However, the main peak sizes are found smaller than modeled by nearly a factor of 2. On the other hand, the lines of CS, HCN, and HC15N, but not SO and HCN(v2=1), show pedestal emissions at radii of about 3500 AU that are not predicted. All lines except SO show a secondary peak within the approaching outflow cone. A dip or null in the visibilities caused by a sharp decrease in abundance with increasing radius is not observed in CS and only tentatively in SO. CONCLUSIONS: The emission of protostellar X-rays is supported by the good fit of the modeled SO and CS amplitude visibilities including an extended main peak in CS. The broad pedestals can be interpreted by far-UV irradiation in a spherically non-symmetric geometry, possibly comprising outflow walls on scales of 3500 -- 7000 AU. The extended CS and SO main peaks suggest sulfur evaporation near the 100 K temperature radius.Comment: Astronomy and Astrophysics, in pres

The evolutionary state of the southern dense core Cha-MMS1

Aims: Our goal is to set constraints on the evolutionary state of the dense core Cha-MMS1 in the Chamaeleon I molecular cloud. Methods: We analyze molecular line observations carried out with the new submillimeter telescope APEX. We look for outflow signatures around the dense core and probe its chemical structure, which we compare to predictions of models of gas-phase chemistry. We also use the public database of the Spitzer Space Telescope (SST) to compare Cha-MMS1 with the two Class 0 protostars IRAM 04191 and L1521F, which are at the same distance. Results: We measure a large deuterium fractionation for N2H+ (11 +/- 3 %), intermediate between the prestellar core L1544 and the very young Class 0 protostar L1521F. It is larger than for HCO+ (2.5 +/- 0.9 %), which is probably the result of depletion removing HCO+ from the high-density inner region. Our CO(3-2) map reveals the presence of a bipolar outflow driven by the Class I protostar Ced 110 IRS 4 but we do not find evidence for an outflow powered by Cha-MMS1. We also report the detection of Cha-MMS1 at 24, 70 and 160 microns by the instrument MIPS of the SST, at a level nearly an order of magnitude lower than IRAM 04191 and L1521F. Conclusions: Cha-MMS1 appears to have already formed a compact object, either the first hydrostatic core at the very end of the prestellar phase, or an extremely young protostar that has not yet powered any outflow, at the very beginning of the Class 0 accretion phase.Comment: Accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysics as a letter, to appear in the special issue on the APEX first result

De-blending Deep Herschel Surveys: A Multi-wavelength Approach

Cosmological surveys in the far infrared are known to suffer from confusion. The Bayesian de-blending tool, XID+, currently provides one of the best ways to de-confuse deep Herschel SPIRE images, using a flat flux density prior. This work is to demonstrate that existing multi-wavelength data sets can be exploited to improve XID+ by providing an informed prior, resulting in more accurate and precise extracted flux densities. Photometric data for galaxies in the COSMOS field were used to constrain spectral energy distributions (SEDs) using the fitting tool CIGALE. These SEDs were used to create Gaussian prior estimates in the SPIRE bands for XID+. The multi-wavelength photometry and the extracted SPIRE flux densities were run through CIGALE again to allow us to compare the performance of the two priors. Inferred ALMA flux densities (F$^i$), at 870$\mu$m and 1250$\mu$m, from the best fitting SEDs from the second CIGALE run were compared with measured ALMA flux densities (F$^m$) as an independent performance validation. Similar validations were conducted with the SED modelling and fitting tool MAGPHYS and modified black body functions to test for model dependency. We demonstrate a clear improvement in agreement between the flux densities extracted with XID+ and existing data at other wavelengths when using the new informed Gaussian prior over the original uninformed prior. The residuals between F$^m$ and F$^i$ were calculated. For the Gaussian prior, these residuals, expressed as a multiple of the ALMA error ($\sigma$), have a smaller standard deviation, 7.95$\sigma$ for the Gaussian prior compared to 12.21$\sigma$ for the flat prior, reduced mean, 1.83$\sigma$ compared to 3.44$\sigma$, and have reduced skew to positive values, 7.97 compared to 11.50. These results were determined to not be significantly model dependent. This results in statistically more reliable SPIRE flux densities.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in A&

The HIFI spectral survey of AFGL 2591 (CHESS). II. Summary of the survey

This paper presents the richness of submillimeter spectral features in the high-mass star forming region AFGL 2591. As part of the CHESS (Chemical Herschel Survey of Star Forming Regions) Key Programme, AFGL 2591 was observed by the Herschel/HIFI instrument. The spectral survey covered a frequency range from 480 up to 1240 GHz as well as single lines from 1267 to 1901 GHz (i.e. CO, HCl, NH3, OH and [CII]). Rotational and population diagram methods were used to calculate column densities, excitation temperatures and the emission extents of the observed molecules associated with AFGL 2591. The analysis was supplemented with several lines from ground-based JCMT spectra. From the HIFI spectral survey analysis a total of 32 species were identified (including isotopologues). In spite of the fact that lines are mostly quite week, 268 emission and 16 absorption lines were found (excluding blends). Molecular column densities range from 6e11 to 1e19 cm-2 and excitation temperatures range from 19 to 175 K. One can distinguish cold (e.g. HCN, H2S, NH3 with temperatures below 70 K) and warm species (e.g. CH3OH, SO2) in the protostellar envelope.Comment: Accepted to A&

Temperatures of dust and gas in S~140

In dense parts of interstellar clouds (> 10^5 cm^-3), dust & gas are expected to be in thermal equilibrium, being coupled via collisions. However, previous studies have shown that the temperatures of the dust & gas may remain decoupled even at higher densities. We study in detail the temperatures of dust & gas in the photon-dominated region S 140, especially around the deeply embedded infrared sources IRS 1-3 and at the ionization front. We derive the dust temperature and column density by combining Herschel PACS continuum observations with SOFIA observations at 37 $\mu$m and SCUBA at 450 $\mu$m. We model these observations using greybody fits and the DUSTY radiative transfer code. For the gas part we use RADEX to model the CO 1-0, CO 2-1, 13CO 1-0 and C18O 1-0 emission lines mapped with the IRAM-30m over a 4' field. Around IRS 1-3, we use HIFI observations of single-points and cuts in CO 9-8, 13CO 10-9 and C18O 9-8 to constrain the amount of warm gas, using the best fitting dust model derived with DUSTY as input to the non-local radiative transfer model RATRAN. We find that the gas temperature around the infrared sources varies between 35 and 55K and that the gas is systematically warmer than the dust by ~5-15K despite the high gas density. In addition we observe an increase of the gas temperature from 30-35K in the surrounding up to 40-45K towards the ionization front, most likely due to the UV radiation from the external star. Furthermore, detailed models of the temperature structure close to IRS 1 show that the gas is warmer and/or denser than what we model. Finally, modelling of the dust emission from the sub-mm peak SMM 1 constrains its luminosity to a few ~10^2 Lo. We conclude that the gas heating in the S 140 region is very efficient even at high densities, most likely due to the deep UV penetration from the embedded sources in a clumpy medium and/or oblique shocks.Comment: 15 pages, 23 figures, 4 tables, accepted for publication in A&

Water emission from the high-mass star-forming region IRAS 17233-3606. High water abundances at high velocities

We investigate the physical and chemical processes at work during the formation of a massive protostar based on the observation of water in an outflow from a very young object previously detected in H2 and SiO in the IRAS 17233-3606 region. We estimated the abundance of water to understand its chemistry, and to constrain the mass of the emitting outflow. We present new observations of shocked water obtained with the HIFI receiver onboard Herschel. We detected water at high velocities in a range similar to SiO. We self-consistently fitted these observations along with previous SiO data through a state-of-the-art, one-dimensional, stationary C-shock model. We found that a single model can explain the SiO and H2O emission in the red and blue wings of the spectra. Remarkably, one common area, similar to that found for H2 emission, fits both the SiO and H2O emission regions. This shock model subsequently allowed us to assess the shocked water column density, N(H2O)=1.2x10^{18} cm^{-2}, mass, M(H2O)=12.5 M_earth, and its maximum fractional abundance with respect to the total density, x(H2O)=1.4x10^{-4}. The corresponding water abundance in fractional column density units ranges between 2.5x10^{-5} and 1.2x10^{-5}, in agreement with recent results obtained in outflows from low- and high-mass young stellar objects.Comment: accepted for publication as a Letter in Astronomy and Astrophysic