Evolutionary view through the starless cores in Taurus

Deuteration in TMC 1-C and TMC 1-CP

¹ Observatorio Astronómico Nacional (OAN), Alfonso XII, 3, 28014, Madrid, Spain
e-mail: dnavarro@oan.es
² School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, National Institute of Science Education and Research, HBNI, Jatni 752050, Odisha, India
³ Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Bordeaux, Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, B18N, allée Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 33615 Pessac, France
⁴ Centre for Astrochemical Studies, Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Giessenbachstrasse 1, 85748, Garching, Germany
⁵ Chalmers University of Technology, Department of Space, Earth and Environment, 412 93 Gothenburg, Sweden
⁶ Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands
⁷ University of Leiden, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
⁸ Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA), Ctra. de Ajalvir, km 4, Torrejón de Ardoz, 28850, Madrid, Spain
⁹ Institut de Radio Astronomie Millimétrique (IRAM), 300 Rue de la Piscine, Domaine Universitaire, 38406 Saint Martin d’Hères, France
¹⁰ Jeremiah Horrocks Institute, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE, UK

Received: 16 March 2021
Accepted: 15 June 2021

Abstract

Context. The chemical and physical evolution of starless and pre-stellar cores are of paramount importance to understanding the process of star formation. The Taurus Molecular Cloud cores TMC 1-C and TMC 1-CP share similar initial conditions and provide an excellent opportunity to understand the evolution of the pre-stellar core phase.

Aims. We investigated the evolutionary stage of starless cores based on observations towards the prototypical dark cores TMC 1-C and TMC 1-CP.

Methods. We mapped the prototypical dark cores TMC 1-C and TMC 1-CP in the CS 3 → 2, C³⁴S 3 → 2, ¹³CS 2 → 1, DCN 1 → 0, DCN 2 → 1, DNC 1 → 0, DNC 2 → 1, DN¹³C 1 → 0, DN¹³C 2 → 1, N₂H⁺ 1 → 0, and N₂D⁺ 1 → 0 transitions. We performed a multi-transitional study of CS and its isotopologs, DCN, and DNC lines to characterize the physical and chemical properties of these cores. We studied their chemistry using the state-of-the-art gas-grain chemical code NAUTILUS and pseudo time-dependent models to determine their evolutionary stage.

Results. The central n_H volume density, the N₂H⁺ column density, and the abundances of deuterated species are higher in TMC 1-C than in TMC 1-CP, yielding a higher N₂H⁺ deuterium fraction in TMC 1-C, thus indicating a later evolutionary stage for TMC 1-C. The chemical modeling with pseudo time-dependent models and their radiative transfer are in agreement with this statement, allowing us to estimate a collapse timescale of ~1 Myr for TMC 1-C. Models with a younger collapse scenario or a collapse slowed down by a magnetic support are found to more closely reproduce the observations towards TMC 1-CP.

Conclusions. Observational diagnostics seem to indicate that TMC 1-C is in a later evolutionary stage than TMC 1-CP, with a chemical age ~1 Myr. TMC 1-C shows signs of being an evolved core at the onset of star formation, while TMC 1-CP appears to be in an earlier evolutionary stage due to a more recent formation or, alternatively, a collapse slowed down by a magnetic support.