Molecular distributions in the inner regions of protostellar disks

¹ Department of Physics, UMIST, Sackville Street, Manchester M60 1QD, UK e-mail: Tom.Millar@umist.ac.uk
² Astrophysical Institute and University Observatory (AIU), Friedrich Schiller University, Schillergaesschen 2–3, 07745 Jena, Germany e-mail: ilgner, henning@astro.uni-jena.de

Corresponding author: A. J. Markwick, ajm@ajmarkwick.com

Received: 5 September 2001
Accepted: 10 January 2002

Abstract

The distributions of molecules in the inner regions of a protostellar disk are presented. These were calculated using an uncoupled chemical/dynamical model, with a numerical integration of the vertical disk structure. A comparison between models with and without the effects of X-ray ionisation is made, and molecules are identified which are good tracers of the ionisation level in this part of the disk, notably CN and C₂H. In the region considered in this paper ( AU), the chemistry is dominated by the thermal desorption of species from grains. This shows that a critically important detail in this region of the disk, as far as molecular distributions are concerned, is the temperature profile. We find that not all of the gaseous material is frozen onto grain surfaces at 10 AU, and we identify species, including some organic molecules, which should exist in observable quantities in the inner regions of protostellar disks.