Universal behavior of two-dimensional bosonic gases at Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transitions

We study the universal critical behavior of two-dimensional (2D) lattice bosonic gases at the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition, which separates the low-temperature superfluid phase from the high-temperature normal phase. For this purpose, we perform quantum Monte Carlo simulations of the hard-core Bose-Hubbard (BH) model at zero chemical potential. We determine the critical temperature by using a matching method that relates finite-size data for the BH model with corresponding data computed in the classical XY model. In this approach, the neglected scaling corrections decay as inverse powers of the lattice size L, and not as powers of 1/lnL, as in more standard approaches, making the estimate of the critical temperature much more reliable. Then, we consider the BH model in the presence of a trapping harmonic potential, and verify the universality of the trap-size dependence at the BKT critical point. This issue is relevant for experiments with quasi-2D trapped cold atoms.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figs, final versio

Near-arcsecond resolution observations of the hot corino of the solar type protostar IRAS 16293-2422

Complex organic molecules have previously been discovered in solar type protostars, raising the questions of where and how they form in the envelope. Possible formation mechanisms include grain mantle evaporation, interaction of the outflow with its surroundings or the impact of UV/X-rays inside the cavities. In this Letter we present the first interferometric observations of two complex molecules, CH3CN and HCOOCH3, towards the solar type protostar IRAS16293-2422. The images show that the emission originates from two compact regions centered on the two components of the binary system. We discuss how these results favor the grain mantle evaporation scenario and we investigate the implications of these observations for the chemical composition and physical and dynamical state of the two components.Comment: 5 pages (apjemulate), 2 figures; accepted by ApJ

The census of complex organic molecules in the solar type protostar IRAS16293-2422

Complex Organic Molecules (COMs) are considered crucial molecules, since they are connected with organic chemistry, at the basis of the terrestrial life. More pragmatically, they are molecules in principle difficult to synthetize in the harsh interstellar environments and, therefore, a crucial test for astrochemical models. Current models assume that several COMs are synthesised on the lukewarm grain surfaces ($\gtrsim$30-40 K), and released in the gas phase at dust temperatures $\gtrsim$100 K. However, recent detections of COMs in $\lesssim$20 K gas demonstrate that we still need important pieces to complete the puzzle of the COMs formation. We present here a complete census of the oxygen and nitrogen bearing COMs, previously detected in different ISM regions, towards the solar type protostar IRAS16293-2422. The census was obtained from the millimeter-submillimeter unbiased spectral survey TIMASSS. Six COMs, out of the 29 searched for, were detected: methyl cyanide, ketene, acetaldehyde, formamide, dimethyl ether, and methyl formate. The multifrequency analysis of the last five COMs provides clear evidence that they are present in the cold ($\lesssim$30 K) envelope of IRAS16293-2422, with abundances 0.03-2 $\times 10^{-10}$. Our data do not allow to support the hypothesis that the COMs abundance increases with increasing dust temperature in the cold envelope, as expected if COMs were predominately formed on the lukewarm grain surfaces. Finally, when considering also other ISM sources, we find a strong correlation over five orders of magnitude, between the methyl formate and dimethyl ether and methyl formate and formamide abundances, which may point to a link between these two couples of species, in cold and warm gas

First detection of triply-deuterated methanol

We report the first detection of triply-deuterated methanol, with 12 observed transitions, towards the low-mass protostar IRAS 16293-2422, as well as multifrequency observations of 13CH3OH, used to derive the column density of the main isotopomer CH3OH. The derived fractionation ratio [CD3OH]/[CH3OH] averaged on a 10'' beam is 1.4%. Together with previous CH2DOH and CHD2OH observations, the present CD3OH observations are consistent with a formation of methanol on grain surfaces, if the atomic D/H ratio is 0.1 to 0.3 in the accreting gas. Such a high atomic ratio can be reached in the frame of gas-phase chemical models including all deuterated isotopomers of H3+.Comment: Accepted by A&

The solar type protostar IRAS16293-2422: new constraints on the physical structure

Context: The low mass protostar IRAS16293-2422 is a prototype Class 0 source with respect to the studies of the chemical structure during the initial phases of life of Solar type stars. Aims: In order to derive an accurate chemical structure, a precise determination of the source physical structure is required. The scope of the present work is the derivation of the structure of IRAS16293-2422. Methods: We have re-analyzed all available continuum data (single dish and interferometric, from millimeter to MIR) to derive accurate density and dust temperature profiles. Using ISO observations of water, we have also reconstructed the gas temperature profile. Results: Our analysis shows that the envelope surrounding IRAS16293-2422 is well described by the Shu "inside-out" collapsing envelope model or a single power-law density profile with index equal to 1.8. In contrast to some previous studies, our analysis does not show evidence of a large (>/- 800 AU in diameter) cavity. Conclusions: Although IRAS16293-2422 is a multiple system composed by two or three objects, our reconstruction will be useful to derive the chemical structure of the large cold envelope surrounding these objects and the warm component, treated here as a single source, from single-dish observations of molecular emission

Sulphur-bearing species in the star forming region L1689N

We report observations of the expected main S-bearing species (SO, SO2 and H2S) in the low-mass star forming region L1689N. We obtained large scale (~300''x200'') maps of several transitions from these molecules with the goal to study the sulphur chemistry, i.e. how the relative abundances change in the different physical conditions found in L1689N. We identified eight interesting regions, where we carried out a quantitative comparative study: the molecular cloud (as reference position), five shocked regions caused by the interaction of the molecular outflows with the cloud, and the two protostars IRAS16293-2422 and 16293E. In the cloud we carefully computed the gas temperature and density by means of a non-LTE LVG code, while in other regions we used previous results. We hence derived the column density of SO, SO2 and H2S, together with SiO and H2CO - which were observed previously - and their relevant abundance ratios. We find that SiO is the molecule that shows the largest abundance variations in the shocked regions, whereas S-bearing molecules show more moderate variations. Remarkably, the region of the brightest SiO emission in L1689N is undetected in SO2, H2S and H2CO and only marginally detected in SO. In the other weaker SiO shocks, SO2 is enhanced with respect to SO. We propose a schema in which the different molecular ratios correspond to different ages of the shocks. Finally, we find that SO, SO2 and H2S have significant abundance jumps in the inner hot core of IRAS16293-2422 and discuss the implications of the measured abundances.Comment: Accepted 08/10/0