The chemical history of molecules in circumstellar disks

I. Ices

¹ Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands e-mail: ruvisser@strw.leidenuniv.nl
² Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Denison University, Granville, OH 43023, USA
⁴ Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Koenigstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany

Received: 22 August 2008
Accepted: 9 January 2009

Abstract

Context. Many chemical changes occur during the collapse of a molecular cloud to form a low-mass star and the surrounding disk. One-dimensional models have been used so far to analyse these chemical processes, but they cannot properly describe the incorporation of material into disks.

Aims. The goal of this work is to understand how material changes chemically as it is transported from the cloud to the star and the disk. Of special interest is the chemical history of the material in the disk at the end of the collapse.

Methods. A two-dimensional, semi-analytical model is presented that, for the first time, follows the chemical evolution from the pre-stellar core to the protostar and circumstellar disk. The model computes infall trajectories from any point in the cloud and tracks the radial and vertical motion of material in the viscously evolving disk. It includes a full time-dependent radiative transfer treatment of the dust temperature, which controls much of the chemistry. A small parameter grid is explored to understand the effects of the sound speed and the mass and rotation of the cloud. The freeze-out and evaporation of carbon monoxide (CO) and water (H₂O), as well as the potential for forming complex organic molecules in ices, are considered as important first steps towards illustrating the full chemistry.

Results. Both species freeze out towards the centre before the collapse begins. Pure CO ice evaporates during the infall phase and re-adsorbs in those parts of the disk that cool below the CO desorption temperature of ~18 K. Water remains solid almost everywhere during the infall and disk formation phases and evaporates within ~10 AU of the star. Mixed CO-H₂O ices are important in keeping some solid CO above 18 K and in explaining the presence of CO in comets. Material that ends up in the planet- and comet-forming zones of the disk (~5-30 AU from the star) is predicted to spend enough time in a warm zone (several 10⁴ yr at a dust temperature of 20-40 K) during the collapse to form first-generation complex organic species on the grains. The dynamical timescales in the hot inner envelope (hot core or hot corino) are too short for abundant formation of second-generation molecules by high-temperature gas-phase chemistry.