Chemical tracers of episodic accretion in low-mass protostars

Aims: Accretion rates in low-mass protostars can be highly variable in time. Each accretion burst is accompanied by a temporary increase in luminosity, heating up the circumstellar envelope and altering the chemical composition of the gas and dust. This paper aims to study such chemical effects and discusses the feasibility of using molecular spectroscopy as a tracer of episodic accretion rates and timescales. Methods: We simulate a strong accretion burst in a diverse sample of 25 spherical envelope models by increasing the luminosity to 100 times the observed value. Using a comprehensive gas-grain network, we follow the chemical evolution during the burst and for up to 10^5 yr after the system returns to quiescence. The resulting abundance profiles are fed into a line radiative transfer code to simulate rotational spectra of C18O, HCO+, H13CO+, and N2H+ at a series of time steps. We compare these spectra to observations taken from the literature and to previously unpublished data of HCO+ and N2H+ 6-5 from the Herschel Space Observatory. Results: The bursts are strong enough to evaporate CO throughout the envelope, which in turn enhances the abundance of HCO+ and reduces that of N2H+. After the burst, it takes 10^3-10^4 yr for CO to refreeze and for HCO+ and N2H+ to return to normal. The chemical effects of the burst remain visible in the rotational spectra for as long as 10^5 yr after the burst has ended, highlighting the importance of considering luminosity variations when analyzing molecular line observations in protostars. The spherical models are currently not accurate enough to derive robust timescales from single-dish observations. As follow-up work, we suggest that the models be calibrated against spatially resolved observations in order to identify the best tracers to be used for statistically significant source samples.Comment: Accepted by A&A; 12 pages, 7 figure

Radionuclide Ionization in Protoplanetary Disks: Calculations of Decay Product Radiative Transfer

We present simple analytic solutions for the ionization rate $\zeta_{\rm{SLR}}$ arising from the decay of short-lived radionuclides (SLRs) within protoplanetary disks. We solve the radiative transfer problem for the decay products within the disk, and thereby allow for the loss of radiation at low disk surface densities; energy loss becomes important outside $R\gtrsim30$ for typical disk masses $M_g=0.04$ M$_\odot$. Previous studies of chemistry/physics in these disks have neglected the impact of ionization by SLRs, and often consider only cosmic rays (CRs), because of the high CR-rate present in the ISM. However, recent work suggests that the flux of CRs present in the circumstellar environment could be substantially reduced by relatively modest stellar winds, resulting in severely modulated CR ionization rates, $\zeta_{\rm{CR}}$, equal to or substantially below that of SLRs ($\zeta_{\rm{SLR}}\lesssim10^{-18}$ s$^{-1}$). We compute the net ionizing particle fluxes and corresponding ionization rates as a function of position within the disk for a variety of disk models. The resulting expressions are especially simple for the case of vertically gaussian disks (frequently assumed in the literature). Finally, we provide a power-law fit to the ionization rate in the midplane as a function of gas disk surface density and time. Depending on location in the disk, the ionization rates by SLRs are typically in the range $\zeta_{\rm{SLR}}\sim(1-10)\times10^{-19}$ s$^{-1}$.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, accepted to Ap

Molecule sublimation as a tracer of protostellar accretion: Evidence for accretion bursts from high angular resolution C18O images

The accretion histories of embedded protostars are an integral part of descriptions of their physical and chemical evolution. In particular, are the accretion rates smoothly declining from the earlier toward later stages or in fact characterized by variations such as intermittent bursts? We aim to characterize the impact of possible accretion variations in a sample of embedded protostars by measuring the size of the inner regions of their envelopes where CO is sublimated and relate those to their temperature profiles dictated by their current luminosities. Using observations from the Submillimeter Array we measure the extents of the emission from the C18O isotopologue toward 16 deeply embedded protostars. We compare these measurements to the predicted extent of the emission given the current luminosities of the sources through dust and line radiative transfer calculations. Eight out of sixteen sources show more extended C18O emission than predicted by the models. The modeling shows that the likely culprit for these signatures is sublimation due to increases in luminosities of the sources by about a factor five or more during the recent 10,000 years - the time it takes for CO to freeze-out again on dust grains. For four of those sources the increase would have had to have been a factor 10 or more. The compact emission seen toward the other half of the sample suggests that C18O only sublimates when the temperature exceeds 30 K - as one would expect if CO is mixed with H2O in the grain ice-mantles. The small-number statistics from this survey suggest that protostars undergo significant bursts about once every 20,000 years. This also illustrates the importance of taking the physical evolutionary histories into account for descriptions of the chemical structures of embedded protostars.Comment: Accepted by A&A; 11 pages, 5 figure

Hot water in the inner 100 AU of the Class 0 protostar NGC1333 IRAS2A

Evaporation of water ice above 100 K in the inner few 100 AU of low-mass embedded protostars (the so-called hot core) should produce quiescent water vapor abundances of ~10^-4 relative to H2. Observational evidence so far points at abundances of only a few 10^-6. However, these values are based on spherical models, which are known from interferometric studies to be inaccurate on the relevant spatial scales. Are hot cores really that much drier than expected, or are the low abundances an artifact of the inaccurate physical models? We present deep velocity-resolved Herschel-HIFI spectra of the 3(12)-3(03) lines of H2-16O and H2-18O (1097 GHz, Eup/k = 249 K) in the low-mass Class 0 protostar NGC1333 IRAS2A. A spherical radiative transfer model with a power-law density profile is unable to reproduce both the HIFI data and existing interferometric data on the H2-18O 3(13)-2(20) line (203 GHz, Eup/k = 204 K). Instead, the HIFI spectra likely show optically thick emission from a hot core with a radius of about 100 AU. The mass of the hot core is estimated from the C18O J=9-8 and 10-9 lines. We derive a lower limit to the hot water abundance of 2x10^-5, consistent with the theoretical predictions of ~10^-4. The revised HDO/H2O abundance ratio is 1x10^-3, an order of magnitude lower than previously estimated.Comment: Accepted by ApJ; 12 pages in emulateapj format; 7 figure

Transient Inactivation of the Medial Prefrontal Cortex Affects Both Anxiety and Decision-Making in Male Wistar Rats

In both humans and rats high levels of anxiety impair decision-making in the Iowa gambling task (IGT) in male subjects. Expression of the immediate early gene c-fos as marker of neural activity in rat studies indicated a role of the medial prefrontal cortex (prelimbic and infralimbic region; mPFC) in mediating the relationship between anxiety and decision-making. To delineate this relationship further and assess the underlying neurobiology in more detail, we inactivated in the present study the mPFC in male rats using a mixture of the GABA-receptor agonists muscimol and baclofen. Rats were exposed to the elevated plus maze (EPM) to measure effects on anxiety and to the rodent version of the IGT (r-IGT). Inactivation led to increased levels of anxiety on the EPM, while not affecting general activity. The effect in the r-IGT (trials 61–120) was dependent on levels of performance prior to inactivation (trial 41–60): inactivation of the mPFC hampered task performance in rats, which already showed a preference for the advantageous option, but not in rats which were still choosing in a random manner. These data suggest that the mPFC becomes more strongly involved as rats have learned task-contingencies, i.e., choose for the best long-term option. Furthermore they suggest, along with the data of our earlier study, that both anxiety and decision-making in rats are mediated through a neural circuitry including at least the mPFC. The data are discussed in relation to recent data of rodent studies on the neural circuitry underlying decision-making

Destruction of Refractory Carbon in Protoplanetary Disks

The Earth and other rocky bodies in the inner solar system contain significantly less carbon than the primordial materials that seeded their formation. These carbon-poor objects include the parent bodies of primitive meteorites, suggesting that at least one process responsible for solid-phase carbon depletion was active prior to the early stages of planet formation. Potential mechanisms include the erosion of carbonaceous materials by photons or atomic oxygen in the surface layers of the protoplanetary disk. Under photochemically generated favorable conditions, these reactions can deplete the near-surface abundance of carbon grains and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by several orders of magnitude on short timescales relative to the lifetime of the disk out to radii of ~20-100+ au from the central star depending on the form of refractory carbon present. Due to the reliance of destruction mechanisms on a high influx of photons, the extent of refractory carbon depletion is quite sensitive to the disk's internal radiation field. Dust transport within the disk is required to affect the composition of the midplane. In our current model of a passive, constant-alpha disk, where alpha = 0.01, carbon grains can be turbulently lofted into the destructive surface layers and depleted out to radii of ~3-10 au for 0.1-1 um grains. Smaller grains can be cleared out of the planet-forming region completely. Destruction may be more effective in an actively accreting disk or when considering individual grain trajectories in non-idealized disks.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, Accepted for publication in Ap

Outflow forces of low mass embedded objects in Ophiuchus: a quantitative comparison of analysis methods

The outflow force of molecular bipolar outflows is a key parameter in theories of young stellar feedback on their surroundings. The focus of many outflow studies is the correlation between the outflow force, bolometric luminosity and envelope mass. However, it is difficult to combine the results of different studies in large evolutionary plots over many orders of magnitude due to the range of data quality, analysis methods and corrections for observational effects such as opacity and inclination. We aim to determine the outflow force for a sample of low luminosity embedded sources. We will quantify the influence of the analysis method and the assumptions entering the calculation of the outflow force. We use the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope to map 12CO J=3-2 over 2'x2' regions around 16 Class I sources of a well-defined sample in Ophiuchus at 15" resolution. The outflow force is then calculated using seven different methods differing e.g. in the use of intensity-weighted emission and correction factors for inclination. The results from the analysis methods differ from each other by up to a factor of 6, whereas observational properties and choices in the analysis procedure affect the outflow force by up to a factor of 4. For the sample of Class I objects, bipolar outflows are detected around 13 sources including 5 new detections, where the three non-detections are confused by nearby outflows from other sources. When combining outflow forces from different studies, a scatter by up to a factor of 5 can be expected. Although the true outflow force remains unknown, the separation method (separate calculation of dynamical time and momentum) is least affected by the uncertain observational parameters. The correlations between outflow force, bolometric luminosity and envelope mass are further confirmed down to low luminosity sources.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures, Accepted by A&

Photodissociation of interstellar N2

Molecular nitrogen is one of the key species in the chemistry of interstellar clouds and protoplanetary disks and the partitioning of nitrogen between N and N2 controls the formation of more complex prebiotic nitrogen-containing species. The aim of this work is to gain a better understanding of the interstellar N2 photodissociation processes based on recent detailed theoretical and experimental work and to provide accurate rates for use in chemical models. We simulated the full high-resolution line-by-line absorption + dissociation spectrum of N2 over the relevant 912-1000 \AA\ wavelength range, by using a quantum-mechanical model which solves the coupled-channels Schr\"odinger equation. The simulated N2 spectra were compared with the absorption spectra of H2, H, CO, and dust to compute photodissociation rates in various radiation fields and shielding functions. The effects of the new rates in interstellar cloud models were illustrated for diffuse and translucent clouds, a dense photon dominated region and a protoplanetary disk.Comment: Online database: http://home.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~ewine/phot