A&A 425, 955-972 (2004)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:200400026
W.-F. Thi1,2,3 - G.-J. van Zadelhoff1,4 - E. F. van Dishoeck 1
1 - Leiden Observatory,
PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
2 -
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College
London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK
3 - Sterrenkundig Instituut Anton Pannekoek, Kruislaan 403, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands
4 - Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut, PO Box 201, 3730 AE De Bilt, The Netherlands
Received 14 January 2003 / Accepted 15 June 2004
Abstract
The results of single-dish observations of low- and high-J transitions of selected molecules from protoplanetary disks around
two T Tauri stars (LkCa 15 and TW Hya) and two
Herbig Ae stars (HD 163296 and MWC 480) are
reported. Simple molecules such as CO,
CO, HCO+, CN
and HCN are detected. Several lines of H
CO are found
toward the T Tauri star LkCa 15 but not in other objects.
No CH
OH has been detected down to abundances of
10-9-10-8 with respect to H
.
SO and CS lines have
been searched for without success. Line ratios indicate that the
molecular emission arises from dense (10
-10
cm
)
and moderately warm (
20-40 K)
intermediate height regions of the disk atmosphere between the
midplane and the upper layer, in accordance with predictions from
models of the chemistry in disks. The sizes of the disks were
estimated from model fits to the 12CO 3-2 line profiles. The
abundances of most species are lower than in the envelope around the
solar-mass protostar IRAS 16293-2422. Freeze-out in the
cold midplane and photodissociation by stellar and interstellar
ultraviolet photons in the upper layers are likely causes of the
depletion. CN is strongly detected in all disks, and the CN/HCN
abundance ratio toward the Herbig Ae stars is even higher than that
found in galactic photon-dominated regions, testifying to the
importance of photodissociation by radiation from the central object
in the upper layers. DCO+ is detected toward TW Hya,
but not in other objects. The high inferred DCO+/HCO+ ratio
of
0.035 is consistent with models of the deuterium
fractionation in disks which include strong depletion of CO. The
inferred ionization fraction in the intermediate height regions as
deduced from HCO+ is at least 10-11-10-10, comparable to
that derived for the midplane from recent H2D+ observations.
Comparison with the abundances found in cometary comae is made.
Key words: ISM: molecules - stars: circumstellar matter - stars: pre-main-sequence - astrochemistry
The protoplanetary disk phase constitutes a key period in the evolution of matter between the young protostellar and the mature planetary system stages. Before their incorporation into comets and large bodies, the gas and dust could have participated in a complex chemistry within the disk. Studies of the chemistry in disks are therefore important to quantify the chemical composition of protoplanetary material.
The chemical composition of the envelopes around young protostars is
now known with increasing detail thanks to the combination of rapid
advances in detectors and antenna technology and improved models
(e.g., van Dishoeck & Blake 1998; Langer et al.
2000). Part of this gas and dust settles around the
pre-main-sequence star in the form of a disk, and after the collapse
and accretion onto the star ceases, planets and comets can form by
accumulating gaseous and solid material on timescales of a few million
years (e.g., Lissauer 1993; Beckwith & Sargent 1996;
Wuchterl et al. 2000). Surveys from the near-infrared
to the millimeter wavelength range have shown that a large fraction of
1-10 million year old Sun-like pre-main-sequence stars harbors a disk
in Keplerian rotation (e.g., Beckwith et al. 1990). The
masses of these disks (0.001-0.1 )
is sufficient to form
a few giant gaseous planets.
Single-dish and interferometric observations of molecular species
other than CO are starting to reveal the chemistry in disks around
classical T Tauri stars (Dutrey et al.
1997; Kastner et al. 1997; Simon et al. 2000; Duvert et al. 2000; van
Zadelhoff et al. 2001; Aikawa et al. 2003; Qi et al. 2003; Dartois et al. 2003; Kessler et al. 2003; Wilner et al. 2003). The low-Jrotational transitions of simple molecules (HCN, CN, HNC, HCO, HCO+, CS, ...) are detected, but their abundances relative
to H
are inferred to be orders of magnitude lower than those
observed in dark clouds. The prevailing explanation of this depletion
involves a combination of freeze-out of the molecules on grain
surfaces in the cold midplane and their photodissociation by
ultraviolet and/or X-rays in the upper atmosphere of disks (see Aikawa
et al. 1999a, 2002; Bergin et al. 2003). The
abundances are enhanced in the intermediate height regions, which are
warm enough for the molecules to remain in the gas phase.
Photodesorption induced by ultraviolet radiation (Willacy & Langer
2000; Westley et al. 1995) or X-rays (Najita et al. 2001) can further populate the upper layers
with molecules evaporated from dust grains.
We present here the results of a survey of several low- and high-Jmolecular transitions observed toward two classical T Tauri stars
(LkCa 15 and TW Hya) and two Herbig Ae stars
(MWC 480 and HD 163296) using single-dish
telescopes. In particular, organic molecules such as HCO,
CH
OH and HCN and deuterated species were searched for. The
comparison of the two types of objects allows the influence of the
color temperature of the radiation field on the chemistry to be
studied. There are several advantages in observing high-Jtransitions over the lower-J ones. First, detections of CO
and H
show the presence of a warm
upper surface layer in protoplanetary disks whose temperature is
higher than the freeze-out temperature of most volatile molecules (van
Zadelhoff et al. 2001; Thi et al. 2001).
Combined with the high densities in disks, this allows the mid-Jlevels to be readily populated. Models of flaring disks predict that
the upper layer facing directly the radiation from the central star
can extend out to large radii (Chiang & Goldreich 1997;
D'Alessio et al. 1999). Second, by observing at higher
frequencies with single dish telescopes, the lines suffer less beam
dilution entailed by the small angular size of disks, typically
1-3
in radius, than at lower frequencies. Also, confusion with
any surrounding low-density cloud material is minimized.
The results for the different molecules are compared to those found
for protostellar objects, in particular the solar-mass protostar IRAS
16293-2422, which is considered representative of the initial cloud
from which the Sun and the solar nebula were formed. This so-called
Class 0 object (André et al. 2000) is younger than the
protoplanetary disks studied here, only a few
yr, and
its chemistry is particularly rich as shown by the number of species
found in surveys in the (sub)millimeter range (e.g., van Dishoeck et
al. 1995; Ceccarelli et al. 2001; Schöier et al.
2002; Cazaux et al. 2003, and references
therein). The similarities and differences in the chemical
composition between IRAS 16293-2422 and the protoplanetary
disks can be used to constrain the chemical models of disks.
At the other extreme, the results for disks can be compared with those
found for objects in our solar system, in particular comets. This
will provide more insight into the evolution of matter from the
protoplanetary disk phase to planetary systems. Unfortunately, the
chemical composition of the large bodies in our solar system has
changed since their formation 4.6 Gyr ago. For example, solar
radiation triggers photochemical reactions in the atmospheres of
planets, and the release of energy from the radioactive decay of
short-lived elements such as Al causes solids to
melt. Comets, however, could have kept a record of the chemical
composition of the primitive solar nebula because they spent much of
their time in the cold outer region of the solar system (the Oort
cloud) since their formation (Irvine et al. 2000; Stern 2003).
Comparison of cometary D/H ratio and the CH
OH abundances
with those in disks are particularly interesting.
This paper is organized as follows. In Sect. 2, the characteristics of the observed objects are summarized. In Sect. 3, the observational details are provided. The results are given in Sect. 4 where a simple local thermodynamical equilibrium (LTE) and statistical equilibrium analysis is performed. In this section, we also derive several disk characteristics by fitting the 12CO 3-2 lines. In Sect. 5, the molecular abundance ratios are discussed. In particular, the CN/HCN ratio can trace the photochemistry whereas the CO/HCO+ ratio is a tracer of the fractional ionization. Finally, a discussion on the D/H ratio in the disks compared with that found in comets or other star-forming regions is presented (see also van Dishoeck et al. 2003).
The sources were selected to have strong CO
fluxes and the highest number of molecular lines detected in previous
observations (Qi 2001; Thi et al. 2001; van Zadelhoff
et al. 2001). LkCa 15 is a solar mass T Tauri
star located in the outer regions of the Taurus cloud. Its age is
estimated to be
10 million years, although Simon et al. (2000)
argue for an age of only 3-5 million years. LkCa 15 is
surrounded by a disk whose mass is estimated to be around 0.03
,
although a higher mass has been obtained from the fitting
of its spectral energy distribution (SED) (Chiang et al. 2001). LkCa 15 is one of the strongest millimeter
emitting sources in the sample of T Tauri stars surveyed by Beckwith
et al. (1990) along with GG Tau and DM Tau.
TW Hya forms part of a young association of stars that has
been discovered only recently and is located at only 56 pc
(Webb et al. 1999). TW Hya itself is a classical
isolated T Tauri star with a high X-ray flux and a large lithium abundance.
Its large H
equivalent width is indicative of active disk
accretion at a rate of
10-8
yr-1 (Kastner
et al. 2002). Despite its relatively high age (
15
Myr), TW Hya is surrounded by a disk of mass
3
10-2
(Wilner et al. 2000) seen
nearly face-on (Weintraub et al. 1989; Krist et al. 2000; Zuckerman et al. 2000).
MWC 480 and HD 163296 were chosen to be representative of Herbig Ae stars. These two objects have the strongest millimeter continuum emission, with disk masses similar to those around the two T Tauri stars. All selected objects show gas in Keplerian rotation as revealed by CO interferometric observations (Qi 2001; Mannings & Sargent 1997).
The stellar characteristics of the four objects are given in
Table 1 and the disk characteristics in
Table 2. In this paper, inclination is
defined such that 0
is a disk viewed pole-on and 90
edge-on. Detailed modeling of the SED of these objects suggests that
the disks are in a state of dust settling, especially LkCa 15
(Chiang et al. 2001). The objects were chosen to be
isolated from any cloud material to avoid contamination of the
single-dish data.
Star | SpT | ![]() |
![]() |
D | M* | Log(
![]() |
Age |
(J2000) | (J2000) | (pc) | (![]() |
(Myr) | |||
LkCa 15 | K7 | 04 39 17.8 | +22 21 03 | 140 | 0.8 | -0.27 | 11.7 |
TW Hya | K8Ve | 11 01 51.91 | -34 42 17.0 | 56 | 1.0 | -0.60 | 7-15 |
HD 163296 | A3Ve | 17 56 21.26 | -21 57 19.5 | 122 | 2.4 | +1.41 | 6.0 |
MWC 480 | A3ep+sh | 04 58 46.27 | +29 50 37.0 | 131 | 2.2 | +1.51 | 4.6 |
Star | Disk massa | Radius | Diameter | Inclination | Ref. |
(10-2![]() |
(AU) | (
![]() |
(![]() |
||
LkCa 15 |
![]() |
425 | 6.2 | ![]() |
1 |
TW Hya |
![]() |
200 | 7.0 | <10 | 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
HD 163296 |
![]() |
310 | 5.0 | ![]() |
7 |
MWC 480 |
![]() |
695 | 10.4 | ![]() |
7 |
a Total gas + dust mass computed from millimeter continuum flux
using a dust opacity coefficient
![]() ![]() References. (1) Qi et al. (2003), (2) Weintraub et al. (1989), (3) Krist et al. (2000), (4) Weinberger et al. (2002), (5) Wilner et al. (2000), (6) Calvet et al. (2002), (7) Mannings et al. (1996). |
The observations were performed between 1998 and 2000 with the James
Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) located on
Mauna Kea for the high-J transitions (850
m window) and with
the 30-m telescope of the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique
(IRAM) at Pico Veleta for the lower J lines (1 to 3 mm). At both
telescopes, the observations were acquired in the beam-switching mode
with a throw of 120
at IRAM and 180
at the JCMT in
the azimuth direction. The observations suffer from beam dilution
owing to the small projected sizes of the disks of the order of
5-10
in diameter, compared to the beam size of the JCMT
(14
at 330 GHz) and IRAM (11.3
at 220 GHz). The data
were reduced and analyzed with the SPECX, CLASS and in-house data
reduction packages.
The JCMT observations made use of the dual polarization B3 receiver
(315-373 GHz) and were obtained mostly in November-December 1999.
The antenna temperatures were converted to main-beam temperatures
using a beam efficiency of
,
which was calibrated
from observations of planets obtained by the staff at the telescope.
The data were obtained in single sideband mode with the image side
band lines reduced in intensity by about 13 dB (i.e. by a factor of
20). The sidebands were chosen to minimize the system
temperature and to avoid any unwanted emission in the other sideband.
The integration times range from 5 min for the bright 12CO
lines to 8 h for the faint lines to
reach a rms noise
of 10-20 mK after
binning. The backend was the Digital Autocorrelator Spectrometer (DAS)
set at a resolution of
0.15-0.27 km s-1 (see
Tables 3 and 4), and
subsequently Hanning-smoothed to 0.3-0.6 km s-1 in spectra where
the signal-to-noise ratio is low. Pointing accuracy and focus were
regularly checked by observing planets, and was found to be accurate
to better than 3'' rms at the JCMT.
The estimated total rms error
at the JCMT associated
with each line is given by the relation (e.g., Papadopoulos &
Seaquist 1998):
![]() |
(2) |
![]() |
(3) |
![]() |
(4) |
The second therm in Eq. (1) concerns the drift of the
temperature scale due to all errors of stochastic nature, and
therefore includes any temperature variation of the cold loads or any
fluctuation of atmospheric opacity. Measurements of spectral standard
sources just before or after the source observations allow an estimate
of this drift, which is generally found to be 10-15% and may be up
to 20-25% in difficult parts of the atmospheric window (e.g.
H2D+ amd N2H+ lines) depending on the conditions. The
lines for which calibration sources are available from measurements by
the JCMT staff are mentioned in
Table 5.
The last term encompasses the systematic error, whose main
contributors are the uncertainty in the value of the beam-efficiency
and pointing errors. As noted above, the pointing at the JCMT was
found to be accurate to better than 3
at 345 GHz. Differences
in beam efficiencies and pointing should also be reflected in the
spectral standard observations, which generally agree within 10-15%
as noted above. This last term is therefore estimated to contribute at
most 10-20%. Taking into account all possible sources of errors, the
overall calibration uncertainties can be as high as 30-40% for a
line detected with 3
in a difficult part of the spectrum,
whereas it is of order 20-25% for high S/N lines for which
spectral standards have been observed.
As discussed by van Zadelhoff et al. (2001), our
HCO+ J=4-3 intensity measured in 1999 is a factor of 3 weaker
than that obtained by Kastner et al. (1997). More
recently, we have re-observed the HCO+ line in May 2004 and find
intensities on two days which agree with those of Kastner et al.
within 10-20%. For comparison, 12CO 3-2 spectra taken in 1999,
2000 and 2004 are consistent within 10% with the Kastner et al.
results taken in 1995 with a different receiver, as are the HCN 4-3
and CN 3-2 results. Thus, only the 1999 HCO+ result appears
anomalously low, perhaps due to unusually large pointing errors during
those observations related to the JCMT "tracking error'' problem, unless the ion abundance is
variable. We use only the new 2004 data in our analysis. Note that the
H13CO+ and DCO+ data were taken only 1 week apart so that
the analysis of the DCO+/HCO+ ratio should not suffer from any
potential long-term variability. Further monitoring of the HCO+line is warranted.
The IRAM-30 m observations were carried out in December 1998 using the
1-3 mm receivers. The weather conditions were excellent. The three
receivers and a splitable correlator were used to observe
simultaneously lines at 1.3, 2 and 3 mm. The receivers were tuned
single-sideband. Image band rejection was of the order of 10 dB.
Forward (
)
efficiencies were measured at the beginning of
each run and have been found to be consistent with standard values.
We measured
,
0.82 and 0.84 at 100, 150 and 230 GHz
respectively. The derived beam efficiencies (
)
are 0.57, 0.69, and 0.69 at 1, 2 and 3 mm
respectively using main-beam efficiencies (
)
provided by
the IRAM staff. The pointing and focusing accuracy were regularly
checked to ensure pointing errors <3
(rms) by
observing planets and quasars. TW Hya is unfortunately
located too far south to observe with the IRAM 30 m telescope.
![]() |
Figure 1: Line profiles observed toward LkCa15. The dashed line indicates the velocity of the source. Note the different antenna temperature scales for the different features. |
![]() |
Figure 2: Line profiles observed toward TW Hya. Note the different antenna temperature scales for the different features. |
The measured antenna temperatures and thermal noise per channel width
are summarized in Tables 3
and 4. The spectra are displayed in
Figs. 2 to 4 on the
main-beam temperature scale for the four sources. 12CO
and 13CO
are
detected toward all objects. Apart from TW Hya, the profiles of the
12CO
spectra are double-peaked with
peak separations of
2 km s-1 for both three objects. The
12CO
spectrum of MWC 480 shows
a profile with slightly different peak strengths. However, the level
of asymmetry is not signifcant compared to the noise. 12CO
observations obtained with 30
offsets
and position-switching to an emission-free position are shown in
Fig. 5 for the four objects. The maps around
LkCa 15, TW Hya and MWC 480 confirm that
these objects are isolated from cloud material. The observations at
offset positions from HD 163296 show emission at velocities
shifted compared with the velocity of the star. The extinction to
HD 163296 is sufficiently low that the extended low density
emission is unlikely to arise from a foreground cloud. The offset
emission is only seen in 12CO, not in 13CO or other
molecules. Lines arising from high-J transitions require high
critical densities and are therefore not likely to come from a low
density cloud. A more complete discussion on the possible
contamination by foreground and/or background clouds is given in Thi
et al. (2001).
![]() |
Figure 3: Line profiles observed toward MWC 480. Note the different antenna temperature scales for the different features. |
![]() |
Figure 4: Line profiles observed toward HD 163296. Note the different antenna temperature scales for the different features. |
High-J lines of various molecules are detected in the disks. Lines
with high signal-to-noise ratio toward LkCa 15,
HD 163296 and MWC 480 show a double-peak structure
corresponding to emission from a disk in Keplerian rotation viewed
under an inclination angle i (Beckwith & Sargent 1993). The
line profiles observed toward TW Hya are well fitted by a
single gaussian, consistent with a disk seen almost face-on. The
profiles show no evidence of extended velocity wings characteristic of
molecular outflows in any of the objects. The velocity integrated
main-beam temperatures for the four sources are summarized in
Table 6. This table includes the energy of
the upper level of the transitions, their critical densities and
frequencies, the telescope at which they were observed and the beam
size. The critical densities are defined as
,
where Aul is the Einstein A coefficient of
the transition
and qul the downward rate coefficient.
They have been computed in the optically thin limit at 100 K using the
molecular data listed in Jansen et al. (1994) and Jansen (1995). For
optically thick lines, the critical densities are lowered by roughly
the optical depth of the line.
![]() |
||||||||||
Line |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Telescope | Beam | Cal.d | LkCa15 | TW Hya | HD 163296 | MWC 480 |
(K) | (cm-3) | (GHz) | (
![]() |
|||||||
12CO
![]() |
16.6 | 2.7(3) | 230.538 | IRAM30 m | 10.7 | ... | 1.82 | ... | ... | ... |
12CO
![]() |
33.2 | 8.4(3) | 345.796 | JCMT | 13.7 | yes | 1.17 | 1.98 | 3.78 | 2.88 |
13CO
![]() |
31.7 | 8.4(3) | 330.587 | JCMT | 14.3 | yes | 0.39 | 0.24 | 0.94 | 0.57 |
C18O
![]() |
15.8 | 2.7(3) | 219.560 | JCMT | 21.5 | yes | <0.20 | ... | ... | ... |
C18O
![]() |
31.6 | 8.4(3) | 329.330 | JCMT | 14.3 | yes | <0.14 | ... | ... | ... |
HCO+
![]() |
42.8 | 1.8(6) | 356.734 | JCMT | 13.2 | yes | 0.26 | 1.26 | 1.10 | 0.35 |
H13CO+
![]() |
41.6 | 1.8(6) | 346.998 | JCMT | 13.6 | yes | <0.13 | 0.07 | ... | ... |
DCO+
![]() |
51.8 | 3.0(6) | 360.169 | JCMT | 13.1 | yes | <0.10 | 0.11 | ... | ... |
CN
![]() |
32.7 | 6.0(6) | 340.248 | JCMT | 13.9 | no | 0.67 | 1.14 | 0.95 | 0.29 |
HCN
![]() |
42.5 | 8.5(6) | 354.506 | JCMT | 13.3 | yes | 0.25 | 0.49 | <0.20 | <0.07 |
H13CN
![]() |
41.4 | 8.5(6) | 345.339 | JCMT | 13.6 | no | ... | <0.04 | ... | ... |
HNC
![]() |
43.5 | 8.5(6) | 362.630 | JCMT | 13.0 | no | ... | <0.05 | ... | ... |
DCN
![]() |
52.1 | 4.8(7)b | 362.046 | JCMT | 13.0 | yes | ... | <0.03 | ... | ... |
CS
![]() |
65.8 | 2.9(6) | 342.883 | JCMT | 14.0 | no | <0.08 | ... | ... | <0.08 |
SO
![]() |
87.7 | 1.8(6) | 344.310 | JCMT | 13.7 | no | ... | <0.10 | ... | ... |
H![]() ![]() |
21.9 | 1.0(5) | 140.839 | IRAM30 m | 17.5 | ... | 0.17 | ... | <0.10 | <0.40 |
H![]() ![]() |
21.0 | 4.7(5) | 218.222 | IRAM30 m | 11.3 | ... | 0.14 | ... | <0.30 | ... |
H![]() ![]() |
68.1 | 2.3(5) | 218.475 | IRAM30 m | 11.3 | ... | <0.10 | ... | ... | <0.06 |
H![]() ![]() |
33.5 | 4.5(5) | 225.697 | IRAM30 m | 10.9 | ... | 0.10 | ... | <0.30 | ... |
H![]() ![]() |
33.5 | 4.5(5) | 225.697 | JCMT | 22.2 | no | ... | <0.05 | ... | ... |
H![]() ![]() |
62.5 | 1.7(6) | 351.768 | JCMT | 13.4 | yes | 0.29 | <0.04 | <0.20 | <0.09 |
CH![]() ![]() |
6.9 | 2.6(3)c | 96.741 | IRAM-30 m | 25.4 | ... | <0.05 | ... | <0.03 | ... |
CH![]() ![]() |
45.4 | 3.7(4) | 218.440 | IRAM30 m | 11.3 | ... | <0.10 | ... | ... | <0.20 |
CH![]() ![]() |
34.8 | 4.5(4) | 241.791 | IRAM30 m | 10.2 | ... | <0.10 | ... | <0.10 | ... |
CH![]() ![]() |
65.0 | 1.3(5) | 338.409 | JCMT | 13.9 | yes | ... | <0.02 | ... | ... |
N![]() ![]() |
44.7 | 4.4(6) | 372.672 | JCMT | 12.7 | no | <0.10 | <0.30 | ... | <0.05 |
H![]() ![]() |
104.3 | 1.2(6) | 372.421 | JCMT | 12.7 | no | <0.10 | <0.20 | ... | <0.05 |
Note. The dots indicate not observed. When a line is
not detected, a 2![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The upper limits are computed assuming a main beam temperature which
corresponds to twice the rms noise level in a 0.3 km s-1 bin
and a line profile similar to that derived from fitting the 13CO
lines.
The ion HCO+ is detected in all sources. Toward TW Hya,
H13CO+ is also seen, and the ratio of integrated fluxes
HCO+/H13CO+ of 24 is lower than the interstellar isotopic
ratio [12C]/[13C] 60, indicating that HCO+ line is
optically thick (van Zadelhoff et al. 2001). Emission
from the CN radical in the
line is
surprisingly strong in all objects compared to HCN
.
HNC
was only
searched toward TW Hya and has not been detected. The line
intensities for some species in this object differ with previous
observations by Kastner et al. (1997) (see van Zadelhoff
et al. 2001, Sect. 3). In general, the two Herbig Ae stars display a
less rich chemistry than the two classical T Tauri stars. In
particular, HCN is not detected in either source in our observations.
Qi (2001), however, reports detection of HCN
toward MWC 480 with the Owens
Valley Millimeter Array (OVRO).
Several lines of HCO are seen toward LkCa 15 with
the IRAM 30-m and JCMT, but not toward the other three disks. Deep
searches for various CH
OH lines with the IRAM 30-m and JCMT
down to very low noise levels did not yield any detections. So far,
CH
OH has only been seen toward LkCa 15 through its
and
lines using OVRO (Qi
2001). This illustrates the power of interferometers to detect
minor species in disks, because, with a beam diameter of
1
-2
,
the fluxes are much less beam-diluted, in addition
to a potentially larger collecting area when a great number of dishes
is available.
No CS
line nor lines of SO
,
some
of which occur fortuitously in other settings (e.g., near H2CO 351 GHz), were detected toward LkCa 15. A deep limit on SO was obtained
toward TW Hya (Fig. 2 and
Table 6).
Finally, DCO+ is detected for the first time in a disk, as reported
by van Dishoeck et al. (2003). The DCO+
line is observed toward TW Hya with
a strength similar to that of H13CO+
,
but the line is not detected toward
LkCa 15 and MWC 480, where H13CO+ is also not seen.
There is a hint of a feature near the DCN
line toward TW Hya, but it is offset by a few km s-1.
Deeper integrations or interferometer data are needed to confirm this.
Note also the high critical density needed to excite the DCN
line (
4.8
107cm-3), which may
make it more difficult to detect than DCO+. The ground-state line
of ortho-H
D+ at 372 GHz was searched toward three sources
(LkCa 15, TW Hya and MWC 480) in a setting
together with N2H+, but neither was detected. Because of the
poor atmosphere and higher receiver noise at this frequency, the
limits for both H2D+ and N2H+ are not very deep, except
toward MWC 480. Recently, Ceccarelli et al. (2004) have
published the detection of the H2D+ 372 GHz line from the DM Tau
disk using the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, together with
a tentative feature from the TW Hya disk. Their integrated line
intensity toward TW Hya is
K km s-1, compared with our 2
limit of 0.20 K km s-1.
Taking into account the smaller beam dilution in the JCMT beam and the
measurement uncertainties, the difference between these two data sets
is about a factor of two.
The mean density can be constrained from line ratios of molecules with high
dipole moments such as HCO+, CN, HCN or HCO.
A simple excitation analysis was performed using an escape probability
code described in Jansen et al. (1994, 1995).
The code computes the statistical equilibrium population of the
rotational levels given the kinetic temperature, volumn density and
column density. Integrated temperatures of low-J transitions from Qi
(2001) were used to complement our high-J data. Both sets of
data were corrected for beam dilution by multiplying the observed
velocity integrated main-beam temperatures by the size of the beam as
listed in Table 6. The analysis for
LkCa 15 and TW Hya has been performed previously by
van Zadelhoff et al. (2001) using HCO+ and HCN, and
takes both the radial and vertical density structure of the disk into
account. Here H2CO is also used as a diagnostic for
LkCa 15 adopting the same method. Consistent with their
results, we find that the densities in the regions probed by our
observations range from 106 to 108 cm-3. This density refers
to the region where the molecular lines are emitted. The fractions of
mass in a given density interval for various disk models are shown in
Fig. 3 of van Zadelhoff et al. (2001). In all models
(Chiang & Goldreich 1997; D'Alessio et al. 1999; Bell
et al. 1997), most of the gas is located in the region of
the disk where the density is greater than 106 cm-3. Those
densities are sufficient for most transitions studied here to be
thermalized. We refer to the paper of van Zadelhoff et al.
(2001) for a detailed discussion on the disk models, the
densities derived from line ratios and the disk location where the
lines are expected to become optically thick.
The mean kinetic temperatures are less well constrained: the ratio
13CO
/ 13CO
of 1.35
0.4 suggests that
20-40 K for LkCa 15 in the region where the
13CO emission originates, assuming that both lines are optically
thin (van Zadelhoff et al. 2001). The bulk material
where CO emits is therefore on average moderately warm and the density
is high enough that the level populations can be assumed to be
thermalized for most cases. The ratios of 2.4
0.7 for
MWC 480 and 1.7
0.5 for HD 163296 indicate
similar temperature ranges. From the CO
/
ratios presented in Thi et al. (2001), it is found that the upper layers of disks have
temperatures in the range 25-60 K. The gas temperatures derived from
the H
data in Thi et al. (2001) are slightly higher
for disks around Herbig Ae stars than around T Tauri stars, as
expected if the disks are heated by the radiation from the central
star. The H
CO
ratio is potentially a good temperature indicator, but the
line has only been detected toward
LkCa 15. The limit on the line ratio constrains the
temperature to be below 200 K. A mean temperature of 25 K is adopted
in the remaining parts of the paper.
The disk sizes are important ingredients for comparing the observed
column densities with models. Since sizes are notoriously difficult to
derive from low S/N interferometer maps, an attempt has been made to
infer them directly from our model profiles. Two methods have been
employed. First, since the 12CO 3-2 emission line is optically
thick, it probes the surface temperature profile of the disk (van
Zadelhoff et al. 2001). Using the method described by
Dutrey et al. (1997) an estimate of the disk size can be
made from the 12CO
lines:
where
and
are the inner and outer
radii,
is the local turbulent velocity (between 0.1 and 0.2
km s-1) and
a geometrical factor of the order of 1.5. We
adopt here
km s-1,
AU,
,
30, and 50 K as the mean disk excitation temperature.
The values for the inclinations i, distances D (in AU) and beam
sizes
are provided in Tables 1 and 2. The
derived disk sizes are given in Table 7.
Our estimates for
K are similar to published values
except for HD 163296, which we find to have twice the size found by
Mannings & Sargent (1997), who measured it directly from their
12CO 1-0 map. Spectra of 12CO 3-2 emission line were also
generated using a standard parametric disk model as described by,
e.g., Beckwith & Sargent (1993). The code uses a ray-tracing
method and assumes that the population of the rotational levels is in
Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium. All disks have a power-law density
profile of the form
.
The exact
value of n0 cannot be constrained by fitting optically thick lines
and we assume a typical value of 5
1013 cm-3 at 1 AU in the
mid-plane. The disk is in hydrostatic equilibrium in the vertical
direction. The inner radius is set to 0.01 AU and is not a significant
parameter. The free parameters of this model are the excitation
temperature
at 1 AU, the inclination i and the
outer radius
.
For simplicity, the gas temperature in the
disk is assumed to have a radial profile power index of 0.5 and
isothermal in the vertical direction. The best fits are found using a
downhill simplex method (e.g., Press et al. 1997).
Figure 6 shows the observed spectra and their
best fits obtained with the parameters reported in
Table 7. The outer radii found by this
ray-tracing model are smaller than those from the optical depth model
with
K, which can be ascribed to additional
contributions from warmer gas at large radii not taken account in the
isothermal disk model. Note that
and
are
probably degenerate: Table 7 gives two sets
of values for LkCa 15 that can both fit the spectra. Only high
signal-to-noise spatially resolved interferometer images can lift this
degeneracy. The larger outer radius (and smaller inner radius
temperature) is adopted, which is closer to that found by direct
fitting of interferometric maps (Qi et al. 2003).
The inclinations are consistent with published values (see Table
2).
![]() |
Figure 6:
Observed (full lines)
and simulated (dahes lines) 12CO
![]() |
Radius (AU) | Disk model | ||||||
Literaturea |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
i |
![]() |
![]() |
|
LkCa 15 | 425 | 620 | 559 | 422 | 57 | 290 | 170 |
LkCa 15d | 425 | ... | ... | ... | 57 | 450 | 100 |
TW Hya | 200 | 238 | 215 | 162 | 3.5 | 165 | 140 |
HD 163296 | 310 | 778 | 701 | 530 | 65 | 680 | 180 |
MWC 480 | 695 | 722 | 650 | 492 | 30 | 400 | 170 |
a See Table 2 for references. b Gas temperature at 1 AU. The radius of disk is taken to be 0.01 AU. c Values adopted in subsequent analysis. d Alternative fit to LkCa15 data. |
Given the sizes, molecular column densities can be derived from the observed line strengths. Two additional assumptions need to be made: the excitation temperature and the line optical depth. The line ratio analysis shows that the lines arise from sufficiently high density regions (105-107 cm-3) that they can be assumed to be thermalized to first order, although small deviations are expected in the surface layers (see below). Therefore, a single excitation temperature of 25 K is adopted to allow easy comparison between the disks.
The optical depth can be estimated from the ratio of lines from two
isotopologues, assuming that the two species have the same excitation
temperature. Such data are available for a few species and lines, and
the results are summarized in Table 8. It
is seen that both the 12CO and H12CO+ lines are very
optically thick. An alternative method is to compare the size of the
optically thick blackbody which accounts for the line flux to the
actual disk radius derived from the optically thick 12CO line. We
adopt again the approach of Dutrey et al. (1997) and rewrite
Eq. (5) as follows:
![]() |
(6) |
Assuming
K, all derived radii are significantly
smaller than the CO disk sizes, except for CN
.
This would suggest
that the lines from species other than CO are less thick in the outer
parts of the disks (R>300 AU) to which our data are most sensitive,
but we consider the direct determination through the isotopologue
ratios more reliable.
When the medium is slightly optically thick ()
and
with
= 2.73 K, the column density of
the upper level
is given by:
![]() |
(7) |
![]() |
(8) |
![]() |
(9) |
The column density in level u is related to the total column density Nby:
![]() |
(10) |
For linear molecules the line strength is equal to the rotational
quantum number J. The rotational energy level structure of the two
linear molecules CN and HCN are more complicated than those for CO.
The spin of the unpaired electron for CN (S=1/2) and the nuclear
spin of 14N (I=1) lead to fine- and hyperfine splitting of the
rotational levels. The observed CN 340 GHz line is a blend of three
lines that account for 55% of all the hyperfine lines
arising from the level J=3 (Simon 1997). The line strength
is taken from Avery et al. (1992). An advantage of the
hyperfine splitting is that it decreases the optical depth in each
individual component. The HCN
line is also a
blend of hyperfine lines but we assume that all the flux is included
in the observed line. Other constants used to derive the column
densities are taken from existing catalogs (Pickett et al.
1998) and are summarized in Thi (2002a). The
rotational partition functions were calculated using the formulae for
each molecule in Gordy & Cook (1984).
The radical CN and the molecule HCN have different critical densities
and the HCN
line may be subthermally excited
in the upper layer, so that the inferred N(CN)/N(HCN) ratio varies
strongly with density. This effect, which can be up to a factor of 2
in the CN/HCN abundance ratio, has been corrected using the
statistical equilibrium calculations described above for the inferred
range of temperatures and densities. It should be noted that this
correction assumes that the CN and HCN lines come from the same
location inside the disks, which is probably not the case. In disk
models, CN peaks more toward the lower density surface layers than HCN
because CN is mostly formed by radical reactions and photodissociation
of HCN (Aikawa et al. 2002). This effect would lead to
higher CN/HCN abundance ratios than presented here.
LkCa15 | TW Hya | HD 163296 | MWC 480 | |
12CO
![]() |
26.8 | 8.3 | 18.9 | 14.9 |
13CO
![]() |
0.44 | 0.14 | 0.31 | 0.25 |
HCO+
![]() |
19.4 | 3.8 | ... | ... |
H13CO+
![]() |
< 0.32 | 0.06 | ... | ... |
HCN
![]() |
0.75 | <5.1 | ... | ... |
H13CN
![]() |
0.012 | <0.085 | ... | ... |
Note. We assume that the
isotopologues have the same excitation temperature and that [12C]/[13C]=60. |
Table 9 summarizes the beam-averaged
column densities and upper-limits for the observed molecules, adopting
the disk sizes derived from the fits to the 12CO
spectra using the isothermal disk model (see
parameters in rightmost columns of
Table 7). A single excitation temperature
25 K and an optical depth of
are
assumed for all lines. For optically thick lines with
,
such as those of HCO+ and perhaps HCN, the derived column densities
by these formulae are clearly lower limits. Wherever available, column
densities derived from isotopic data have been used in these cases.
![]() |
|||||
LkCa15 | TW Hya | HD 163296 | MWC 480 | ||
Species | Transition |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
12COa | 13CO
![]() |
1.9(16) | 3.2(16) | 3.5(16) | 6.9(16) |
13CO |
![]() |
3.6(14) | 5.5(14) | 5.9(14) | 1.2(15) |
HCO+ |
![]() |
3.3(11) | 4.4(12) | 9.4(11) | 1.0(12) |
HCO+ | H13CO+
![]() |
... | 1.2(13) | ... | ... |
H13CO+ |
![]() |
<1.5(11) | 2.0(11) | ... | ... |
DCO+ |
![]() |
<2.9(11) | 4.4(11) | ... | ... |
CN |
![]() |
1.5(13) | 6.6(13) | 1.5(13) | 1.5(13) |
HCN |
![]() |
1.8(12) | 9.2(12) | <1.0(12) | <1.2(12) |
H13CN |
![]() |
... | <4.8(11) | ... | ... |
HNC |
![]() |
... | <1.4(12) | ... | ... |
DCN |
![]() |
... | <4.0(10) | ... | ... |
CS |
![]() |
5.1(12) | ... | ... | ... |
H![]() |
![]() |
5.1(12) | ... | <2.1(12) | <2.7(13) |
H![]() |
![]() |
1.7(12) | ... | <2.6(12) | ... |
H![]() |
![]() |
<1.4(13) | ... | <9.4(12) | ... |
H![]() |
![]() |
7.1(11) | ... | <1.5(12) | <9.4(11) |
H![]() |
![]() |
2.4(12) | <8.0(11) | <1.1(12) | <1.5(12) |
CH![]() |
![]() |
<7.1(13) | ... | <2.8(13) | ... |
CH![]() |
![]() |
<4.3(14) | ... | ... | <6.9(13) |
CH![]() |
![]() |
<2.4(13) | ... | ... | ... |
CH![]() |
![]() |
... | <1.1(13) | ... | ... |
N![]() |
![]() |
<1.4(12) | <1.0(13) | ... | <1.5(12) |
H![]() |
![]() |
<8.7(11) | <4.4(12) | ... | <1.0(12) |
SO |
![]() |
... | <4.3(12) | ... | ... |
Note.
The excitation temperature is assumed to be 25 K for all lines;
uncertainties in the column densities are of the order of 30%, not including uncertainties in the disk size. a(b) means a ![]() a 12CO column density derived from 13CO intensity assuming [12C]/[13C] = 60. |
It is well known that disk masses derived from CO measurements are
much lower than those obtained from millimeter continuum observations
assuming a gas/dust ratio of 100. Because CO is subject to
photodissociation and freeze-out, one cannot adopt the canonical
CO abundance of CO/H
2=10-4 found for molecular
clouds; instead, the disk
masses
are assumed to be given by the millimeter
continuum observations (see Thi et al. 2001,
Table 2).
It should noted that, in the optically thin limit, the abundances are
independent of the disk size. The derived abundances are summarized in
Table 10. As noted above, the abundances
derived from the highly optically thick HCO+ and HCN lines are
likely to be underestimated by up to an order of magnitude. For
molecules that are detected in all four disks (CN, HCO+), the
abundances vary significantly from object to object. The
non-detection of HCN toward the Herbig Ae stars confirms the low
abundances in these cases, although the high critical density of the
HCN
line may also play a role. The upper limits are much
lower in the case of TW Hya owing to the small distance of this object
and its narrow lines.
![]() |
|||||||
Species | LkCa15 | TW Hya | HD 163296 | MWC 480 | DM Tau | IRAS 16293-2422b | |
This worka | Dutrey et al. | ||||||
CO | 3.4(-07) | 5.7(-08) | 3.1(-07) | 6.9(-07) | 9.6(-06) | 1.5(-05) | 4.0(-05) |
HCO+ | 5.6(-12) | 2.2(-11)c | 7.8(-12) | 1.0(-10) | 7.4(-10) | 7.4(-10) | 1.4(-09) |
H13CO+ | <2.6(-12) | 3.6(-13) | ... | ... | <3.6(-11) | <3.6(-11) | 2.4(-11) |
DCO+ | <2.31(-12) | 7.8(-13) | ... | ... | ... | ... | 1.3(-11) |
CN | 2.4(-10) | 1.2(-10) | 1.3(-10) | 1.4(-10) | 9.0(-09) | 3.2(-09) | 8.0(-11) |
HCN | 3.1(-11) | 1.6(-11) | <9.1(-12) | <1.1(-11) | 4.9(-10) | 5.5(-10) | 1.1(-09) |
H13CN | ... | <8.4(-13) | ... | ... | ... | ... | 1.8(-11) |
HNC | ... | <2.6(-12) | ... | ... | 1.5(-10) | 2.4(-10) | 6.9(-11) |
DCN | ... | <7.1(-14) | ... | ... | ... | ... | 1.3(-11) |
CS | <8.5(-11) | ... | ... | ... | 2.4(-10) | 3.3(-10) | 3.0(-09) |
H![]() |
4.1(-11) | <1.4(-12) | <1.0(-11) | <1.4(-11) | 2.4(-10) | 5.0(-10) | 7.0(-10) |
CH![]() |
<3.7(-10) | <1.9(-11) | <1.5(-10) | <2.0(-09) | ... | ... | 3.5(-10) |
N![]() |
<2.3(-11) | <1.8(-11) | ... | <1.5(-11) | <5.0(-09) | <2.0(-10) | ... |
H![]() |
<1.5(-11) | <7.8(-12) | ... | <1.0(-11) | ... | ... | ... |
SO | ... | <4.1(-11) | ... | ... | ... | ... | 4.4(-09) |
a Re-analysis of data from Dutrey et al. (1997), see text. b Outer envelope abundances from Schöier et al. (2002). c Value inferred from H13CO+. |
The derived abundances and depletion factors are roughly consistent with the large range of values given by van Zadelhoff et al. (2001), especially for their colder models. A full comparison between the two studies is difficult since van Zadelhoff et al. performed more detailed radiative transfer modeling with a varying temperature in the vertical direction. Also, they adopted a smaller disk radius of 200 AU compared with our value of 450 AU for LkCa 15. This leads to higher abundances to reproduce the same line flux, at least for optically thick lines.
For comparison, we have also re-derived the abundances in the disk
around DM Tau, where many of the same species have been detected by
Dutrey et al. (1997). Their tabulated velocity integrated
flux densities have been converted to velocity integrated main beam
temperatures via the relation:
![]() |
(12) |
The last column of Table 10 contains the abundances found in the cold outer region of the protostellar envelope of IRAS 16293-2422. The latter abundances seem to be higher than those in disks by at least an order of magnitude, even taking into account the fact that the disk abundances may be underestimated because of optical depth effects. A noticeable exception is CN, which has a higher abundance in all four disks and in DM Tau than in IRAS 16293-2422.
Two processes have been put forward to explain the low molecular
abundances in disks. First, in the disk mid-plane, the dust
temperature is so low (<20 K) and the density so high (
109 cm-3) that most molecules including CO are frozen
onto the grain surfaces. This possibility is supported by the
detection of large amounts of solid CO at infrared wavelengths in the
disk around the younger class I object CRBR 2422.8-3423 (Thi
et al. 2002b). In this environment, surface chemistry can
occur but the newly-formed species stay in the solid phase and thus
remain unobservable at millimeter wavelengths, except for a small
fraction which may be removed back in the gas phase by non-thermal
desorption processes such as cosmic-ray spot heating.
Second, the photodissociation of molecules in the upper layers of
protoplanetary disks by the ultraviolet radiation from the central
star and from the ambient interstellar medium can limit the lifetime
of molecules. The ultraviolet flux from the central star can reach
104 times the interstellar flux (Glassgold et al. 2000). Aikawa et al. (2002) and van
Zadelhoff et al. (2003) have modeled the chemistry in
disks, taking these mechanisms into account. Their models show that
molecules are abundant in the intermediate height regions of disks,
consistent with the derived temperature range (20-40 K) for the
emitting gas. According to the flaring disk model, this intermediate
region is located just below the warm upper layer
( 100 K).
The molecular abundance distributions predicted by the above chemical models including photodissociation and freeze-out have been put into a 2D radiative transfer code to compute the level populations using statistical equilibrium rather than LTE and to take the optical depth effects properly into account. The resulting integrated fluxes can be compared directly with observations. As shown by Aikawa et al. (2002) they differ by factors of a few up to an order of magnitude, which indicates that such models are to first order consistent with the data.
Table 11 includes the CN/HCN abundance ratios derived for the disks. Compared with IRAS 16293-2422, the CN/HCN ratio is more than two orders of magnitude larger, and even compared with galactic PDRs, all disk ratios are higher. The disk ratios may be overestimated due to underestimate of HCN optical depth effects, but the high values are a strong indication that photodissociation processes play a role in the upper layers of the disks.
Source | N(HCO+) | N(CN) | N(DCO+) |
N(CO) | N(HCN) | N(HCO+) | |
LkCa 15 | 1.6(-5) | 7.9 | <0.411 |
TW Hya | 3.8(-4)1 | 7.1 | 0.035 |
1.4(-4)2 | |||
DM Taua | 5.3(-5) | 5.8 | |
DM Taub | 7.6(-5) | 18.4 | |
HD 163296 | 2.7(-5) | >12.4 | |
MWC 480 | 1.5(-5) | >11.7 | |
IRAS 16293-2422c | 3.6(-5) | 0.07 | |
TMC-1d | 1.0(-4) | 1.5 | |
Orion Bare | 2.0(-5) | 3.8 | |
IC 63f | 2.7(-5) | 0.7 |
References. a Dutrey et al. (1997); b from Table 7;
c Schöier et al. (2002); d Ohishi et al. (1992);
e Hogerheijde et al. (1995); f Jansen et al. (1995). Notes. 1 Value derived from H13CO+, assuming [12C]/[13C] = 60. 2 Value derived from HCO+. |
CN is particularly enhanced by photochemistry since it is produced by
radical reactions involving atomic C and N in the upper layers as well
as photodissociation of HCN. Moreover, CN cannot be easily
photodissociated itself since very high energy photons (<1000 Å,
>12.4 eV) are required to destroy the radical (van Dishoeck
1987). The CN/HCN ratio appears to be higher in disks around
Herbig Ae stars than around T Tauri stars, although our high ratio of
>11 for MWC 480 disagrees with the ratio of 4 by Qi
(2001) with OVRO. The disagreement between the results of Qi
(2001) and ours can be ascribed to the fact that Qi (2001) had
H13CN data available to constrain the optical depth of the HCN
line. Also, their 1-0 lines are less sensitive to the adopted disk
density structure. In general the fluxes from MWC 480 for transitions
which have high critical densities are lower than those for T Tauri
stars, whereas the CO fluxes (with lower critical densities) are
higher. This may imply that the level populations are subthermal for
the disks around Herbig Ae stars.
Van Zadelhoff et al. (2003) have investigated the
effects of different UV radiation fields on the disk chemistry,
focusing on T Tauri stars with and without excess UV emission. CN is
clearly enhanced in the upper disk layers for radiation fields without
any excess UV emission owing to its reduced photodissociation. When
convolved with the JCMT beams, however, the differences are difficult
to discern: the HCN emission is nearly identical for the different
radiation fields, whereas the CN emission varies by only a factor of a
few. Since T Tauri stars like TW Hya have been observed to have excess
UV emission (Costa et al. 2000) - probably originating
from a hot boundary layer between the accretion disk and the star -,
the difference in the CN/HCN chemistry with the Herbig Ae stars may be
smaller than thought on the basis of just the stellar spectra. Bergin
et al. (2003) suggest that strong Ly
emission
dominates the photodissociation rather than an enhanced continuum
flux. Since CN cannot be photodissociated by Ly
radiation but
HCN can (Bergin et al.2003; van Zadelhoff et al. 2003), the CN/HCN
ratio is naturally enhanced.
Other chemical factors can also affect the CN/HCN ratio. Radicals such
as CN are mainly destroyed by atomic oxygen in the gas-phase and
therefore a lower oxygen abundance can increase the CN/HCN ratio.
Since atomic oxygen is a major coolant for the gas, a lower abundance
will also maintain a higher mean kinetic temperature.
Alternatively, the dust temperature could be in the regime that
HCN is frozen out but CN not because the two
molecules have very different desorption energies (
K and
K; Aikawa et
al. 1997).
Yet an alternative explanation for high CN abundances is production by
X-ray photons emitted from the active atmosphere of T Tauri stars
(e.g., Aikawa & Herbst 1999a; Lepp & Dalgarno
1996). TW Hya is a particularly strong X-ray
emitter, with a measured X-ray flux 10 times higher than the mean
X-ray flux observed toward other T Tauri stars (Kastner et al.
2002). In addition, H
S(1), another diagnostic line of energetic events, has been observed
toward this object (Weintraub et al. 2000).
TW Hya may however constitute a special case since neither
LkCa 15 nor DM Tau seems to show enhanced X-ray emission, yet they
have a similar CN/HCN ratio. Further observations of molecules in
disks around strong X-ray emitting pre-main-sequence stars are
warranted to better constrain the contribution of X-rays on the
chemistry in disks.
Table 11 compares the HCO+/CO ratios found in the disks with those found in a protostellar region (IRAS 16293-2422), a dark cloud (TMC-1) and two galactic photon-dominated regions (PDRs) (Orion Bar and IC 63). Within a factor of two, all values are very similar, except for the TW Hya disk. It should be noted, however, that except for TW Hya, the ratios in disks have been derived from the optically thick HCO+ line and may therefore be underestimates. Indeed, the ratio obtained using the main HCO+ isotope for TW Hya is closer to that of the other objects. Observations of H13CO+ for all disks are warranted to make definitive conclusions.
HCO+ is produced mainly by the gas phase reaction H3+ + CO
HCO+ + H2. Its formation is increased by enhanced
ionization (e.g., by X-ray ionization to form H3+ in addition to
cosmic rays) and by enhanced depletion (which also enhances H3+,
see e.g., Rawlings et al. 1992). The fact that all
HCO+ abundances in disks are higher than those found in normal
clouds (after correction for HCO+ optical depths) suggests that
these processes may play a large role in the intermediate warm disk
layer where both molecules are thought to exist. In this context it is
interesting to note that TW Hya has the largest depletion of CO and is
also the most active X-ray emitter (see below).
The derived HCO+ abundances provide a lower limit to the ionization
fraction in disks. The typical values of 10-11-10-10 are high
enough for the magnetorotational instability to occur and thus provide
a source of turbulence and mixing in the disk (e.g., Nomura
2002). Ceccarelli et al. (2004) used
their H2D+ observations toward DM Tau and TW Hya to
derive an electron abundance of (4-7)
10-10, assuming that
H3+ and H2D+ are the most abundant ions. These values
refer to the midplane of those disks where the depletion of CO
enhances the H2D+/H3+ ratio (see Sect. 5.5), whereas our
values apply to the intermediate layer where most of the HCO+emission arises.
Lines of HCO have been detected toward only one source,
LkCa 15. CH
OH is not detected in the single-dish
observations of any disks, although it is seen in the OVRO
interferometer data toward LkCa 15 by Qi (2001), who derived
a CH
OH column density of 7-20
1014 cm-2compared with our upper limit of 9.4
1014 cm-2.
Our upper limits for H
CO and CH3OH are derived from the
spectra with the lowest rms Methanol has been detected from the
class 0 protostar L1157 by Goldsmith, Langer & Velusamy
(1999), where its emission has been ascribed to a
circumstellar disk. However, this object is much younger than those
studied here and presumably has a different physical structure and
chemical history.
The HCO/CH
OH abundance ratio of
>0.15 for LkCa 15 is consistent with values found for
embedded YSOs (see Table 8 of Schöier et al. 2002 for
IRAS 16293-2422 and van der Tak et al. 2000 for the case of
massive protostars). Heating of the disk, whether by ultraviolet- or
X-rays, should lead to strong ice evaporation and thus to enhanced
gas-phase abundances for grain-surface products. Both CH
OH
and H2CO have been detected in icy mantles, with the CH3OH
abundance varying strongly from source to source (Dartois et al. 1999; Keane et al. 2001, Pontoppidan et al.
2003). For the few sources for which both species have been
seen, the solid H2CO/CH3OH ratio varies from 0.1-1. Thus, the
observed ratio in LkCa 15 could be consistent with grain surface
formation of both species. Since their absolute abundances are much
lower than typical ice mantle abundances of 10-6 with respect to
H2, this indicates that most of the CH
OH and H2CO, if
present, is frozen onto grains. Deeper searches for both species in
disks are warranted.
Protoplanetary disks are places where comets may form and their
volatile composition may provide constraints on their formation
models. The CH3OH abundance is known to vary significantly between
comets. For example, comet C/1999 H1 (Lee) shows a CO/CHOH
ratio around 1 whereas Hale-Bopp and Hyakutake have ratios of 10 and
14 respectively (Biver et al. 2000). Comet Lee probably
belongs to the so-called "methanol-rich comets" group
(Bockelée-Morvan et al. 1995; Davies et
al. 1993). In addition, the measured CO abundance is
1.8
0.2% compared to H
O, 5 times less than found
in Hale-Bopp. Alternatively, Mumma et al. (2001) propose
that Comet Lee has been heated sufficiently after its formation for CO
to evaporate but not CH
OH, so that CH
OH abundance
is not enhanced but rather CO is depleted. Mumma et al. (2001) notice that the CH
OH/H
O and
CO/H
O ratios vary strongly among comets coming from the
giant-planets regions. The picture is not complete since CO can be
converted to CO
,
whose abundance is high in interstellar
ices (e.g., Ehrenfreund & Charnley 2000) but less
well known in comets (10% in comet 22P/Kopff, Crovisier et al. 1999).
Long period comets were probably formed in the Jupiter-Saturn region
(around 5-20 AU), whereas our data are only sensitive to distances of
more than 50 AU. It would therefore be more relevant to compare the
composition of protoplanetary disks to that of Kuiper Belt Objects,
which were formed beyond 50 AU in the solar nebula. The chemical
composition of Kuiper Belt Objects is not well known (see Jewitt &
Luu 2000), although observations show that comet nuclei and
Kuiper Belt Objects have different surface compositions (Luu & Jewitt
2002; Jewitt 2002). The nature of Centaur
objects is better understood. It is believed that Centaur objects were
formed beyond 50 AU and recently entered the planetary zone with
orbits crossing those of the outer planets. The best studied Centaur
object, 5145 Pholus, shows the presence of CHOH although the
exact amount is not well constrained (Cruikshank et al.
1998).
The D/H ratio in the TW Hya disk of 0.035
0.01 has been
derived from the H13CO+ and DCO+ column density ratios,
assuming an isotopic ratio [12C]/[13C] of 60 (van Dishoeck
et al. 2003). Hints of H13CN and DCN features
are seen in the TW Hya spectra, but neither of them is
definitely detected. Searches for other deuterated species in the
LkCa 15 disk, in particular DCN and HDO, are reported by Kessler et
al. (2003).
It should be kept in mind that our observations provide only a value
of the D/H ratio averaged over the entire disk. Models of the
DCO+/HCO+ abundance ratio show that it remains rather constant
throughout the disk down to a radius of 100 AU, however (Aikawa et
al. 2002). All values are significantly higher than the
elemental [D]/[H] abundance of 1.5
10-5 (Pettini & Bowen
2001; Moos et al. 2002).
Theoretically, the amount of deuterium fractionation in molecules depends on the gas kinetic temperature, which drives the isotopic exchange reactions, and on the cosmic ray ionization rate (Aikawa & Herbst 1999b). Also, the abundance is enhanced if CO is significantly depleted onto grains (Brown & Millar 1989). Thus, the amount of deuterium fractionation can serve as a tracer of the temperature history of the gas. The deuterium fractionation can be further enhanced by grain-surface formation (Tielens 1983), although not for DCO+/HCO+. Recent chemical models succeed in explaining the high fractionation observed here and in dark cloud cores (Rodgers & Millar 1996; Roberts & Millar 2000; Tiné et al. 2000), but only if significant freeze-out is included (Roberts et al. 2002, 2003). Our observed values are also close to those found in disk models which include a realistic 2D temperature and density profile with freeze-out (Aikawa et al. 2002).
Table 2 in van Dishoeck et al. (2003) compares the D/H ratio found in disks to typical values for the D/H ratio in different protostellar and cometary environments. The value found in disks is somewhat higher than that in the low-mass protostellar envelope of IRAS 16293-2422, but comparable to that seen in dark cloud cores. DCO+/HCO+ has not been observed in comets, but the D/H ratios derived from DCN/HCN in pristine material in jets originating from below the comet surface is found to be similar to that seen for DCO+/HCO+ in the TW Hya disk (Blake et al. 1999). Alternatively, Rodgers & Charnley (2002) propose that the DCN and HCN seen in these cometary jets are the photodestruction products of large organic molecules or dust grains. In either case, the D/H ratio of pristine icy material in comets is high. The similarity suggests that either the gas is kept at low temperatures as it is transported from pre-stellar clouds to disks and eventually to comet-forming regions, or, alternatively, that the DCO+/HCO+ratio has been reset by the chemistry in disks. Comparison with D/H ratios of molecules which likely enter the disks as ices are needed to distinguish these scenarios.
We surveyed low- and high-J transitions of simple organic molecules
in two classical T Tauri and two Herbig Ae stars. Analysis of line
ratios indicates that the emission comes from a dense (
=
106-108 cm-3) and moderately warm region (
20-40 K). Detailed fits to the 12CO 3-2 emission line profiles
provide independent estimates of the sizes of the disks.
Emission from the ion HCO+ and the radical CN are particularly
strong, indicating an active gas-phase chemistry in the surface layers
of disks which is affected by UV radiation from the central stars.
HCO is detected in one source but CH
OH is not
observed in any object in our sample. In one source (TW Hya)
the detection of DCO+ allows to constrain the DCO+/HCO+ ratio
to
0.035, a value that is higher than that found in the
envelopes of low-mass protostars but comparable to that observed in
cold dark cores, where fractionation due to low temperature chemistry
and CO freeze-out is important.
This work demonstrates that organic chemistry in disks around low- and
intermediate-mass pre-main-sequence stars can now be studied
observationally. The detection of molecular species in disks is
hampered, however, by the small sizes of disks compared with the
actual beams of single-dish telescopes. Moreover, because the total
amount of material is small (few
10-2
), the
observations are limited to the most abundant species. It is likely
that the chemistry in more tenuous disks, in which the ultraviolet
radiation can penetrate through the entire disk, is different from
that for our objects (e.g., Kamp & Bertoldi
2000; Kamp et al. 2003).
Although the outer disks can be resolved by current
millimeter interferometers, integration times are too long to do
molecular line surveys and the inner tens of AU are still out of
reach. The detection of more complex and much less abundant molecules
in protoplanetary disks at different stages of evolution awaits the
availability of the Atacama Large Millimeter Array
(ALMA). Complementary infrared observations of solid-state species
along the line of sight of edge-on protoplanetary disks will help to
constrain quantitatively the level of depletion in the mid-plane of
disks.
Acknowledgements
W.F.T. thanks PPARC for a Postdoctoral grant to UCL. This work was supported by a Spinoza grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research to EvD and a postdoctoral grant (614.041.005) to WFT. We thank Remo Tilanus, Fred Baas, Michiel Hogerheijde, Kirsten Knudsen-Kraiberg, Annemieke Boonman, and Peter Papadopoulos, who have performed some of the JCMT observations in service; Geoff Blake, Charlie Qi and Jackie Kessler for communicating their OVRO results prior to publication; and Yuri Aikawa for fruitful discussions on disk models. We acknowledge the IRAM staff at Granada for carrying part of the observations in service mode.
Telescope | dva |
![]() |
![]() |
|
(km s-1) | (K) | (K) | ||
LkCa 15 | ||||
12CO
![]() |
IRAM30 m | 0.10 | 0.402 | 0.159 |
12CO
![]() |
JCMT | 0.13 | 0.258 | 0.051 |
13CO
![]() |
JCMT | 0.28 | 0.074 | 0.026 |
C18O
![]() |
JCMT | 0.21 | <0.084 (2![]() |
0.042 |
C18O
![]() |
JCMT | 0.14 | <0.054 (2![]() |
0.027 |
HCO+
![]() |
JCMT | 0.26 | 0.055 | 0.018 |
H13CO+
![]() |
JCMT | 0.13 | <0.078 (2![]() |
0.039 |
DCO+
![]() |
JCMT | 0.13 | <0.048 (2![]() |
0.024 |
CN
![]() |
JCMT | 0.27 | 0.070 | 0.018 |
HCN
![]() |
JCMT | 0.26 | 0.051 | 0.022 |
CS
![]() |
JCMT | 0.27 | <0.038 (2![]() |
0.019 |
H![]() ![]() |
IRAM30 m | 0.16 | 0.021 | 0.008 |
H![]() ![]() |
IRAM30 m | 0.10 | 0.025 | 0.021 |
H![]() ![]() |
IRAM30 m | 0.10 | <0.036 (2![]() |
0.018 |
H![]() ![]() |
IRAM30 m | 0.10 | 0.066 | 0.016 |
H![]() ![]() |
JCMT | 0.27 | 0.030 | 0.016 |
CH![]() ![]() |
IRAM30 m | 0.12 | <0.014 (2![]() |
0.007 |
CH![]() ![]() |
IRAM30 m | 0.11 | <0.036 (2![]() |
0.018 |
CH![]() ![]() |
IRAM30 m | 0.09 | <0.036 (2![]() |
0.018 |
N![]() ![]() |
JCMT | 0.12 | <0.454 (2![]() |
0.227 |
H![]() ![]() |
JCMT | 0.12 | <0.372 (2![]() |
0.186 |
TW Hya | ||||
12CO
![]() |
JCMT | 0.13 | 1.853 | 0.066 |
12CO
![]() |
JCMT | 0.13 | 1.679 | 0.241 |
13CO
![]() |
JCMT | 0.14 | 0.185 | 0.046 |
HCO+
![]() |
JCMT | 0.13 | 0.656 | 0.230 |
HCO+
![]() |
JCMT | 0.13 | 1.197 | 0.087 |
H13CO+
![]() |
JCMT | 0.13 | 0.050 | 0.016 |
DCO+
![]() |
JCMT | 0.13 | 0.104 | 0.023 |
CN
![]() |
JCMT | 0.14 | 0.597 | 0.075 |
HCN
![]() |
JCMT | 0.13 | 0.369 | 0.080 |
H13CN
![]() |
JCMT | 0.13 | <0.056 (2![]() |
0.028 |
HNC
![]() |
JCMT | 0.13 | <0.089 (2![]() |
0.049 |
DCN
![]() |
JCMT | 0.13 | <0.068 (2![]() |
0.034 |
H![]() ![]() |
JCMT | 0.10 | <0.088 (2![]() |
0.044 |
H![]() ![]() |
JCMT | 0.13 | <0.074 (2![]() |
0.037 |
CH![]() ![]() |
JCMT | 0.14 | <0.046 (2![]() |
0.023 |
N![]() ![]() |
JCMT | 0.12 | <0.710 (2![]() |
0.355 |
H![]() ![]() |
JCMT | 0.12 | <0.596 (2![]() |
0.298 |
SO
![]() |
JCMT | 0.13 | <0.202 (2![]() |
0.101 |
a dv is the spectral resolution of the data in km s-1;
![]() ![]() |
Telescope | dv |
![]() |
![]() |
|
(km s-1) | (K) | (K) | ||
HD 163296 | ||||
12CO
![]() |
JCMT | 0.23 | 0.920 | 0.130 |
13CO
![]() |
JCMT | 0.28 | 0.225 | 0.052 |
HCO+
![]() |
JCMT | 0.26 | 0.128 | 0.030 |
CN
![]() |
JCMT | 0.27 | 0.115 | 0.018 |
HCN
![]() |
JCMT | 0.26 | <0.074 (2![]() |
0.037 |
H![]() ![]() |
JCMT | 0.27 | <0.204 (2![]() |
0.102 |
H![]() ![]() |
IRAM30 m | 0.17 | <0.018 (2![]() |
0.009 |
H![]() ![]() |
IRAM30 m | 0.11 | <0.030 (2![]() |
0.015 |
H![]() ![]() |
IRAM30 m | 0.10 | <0.018 (2![]() |
0.009 |
CH![]() ![]() |
IRAM30 m | 0.12 | <0.014 (2![]() |
0.007 |
MWC 480 | ||||
12CO
![]() |
JCMT | 0.13 | 0.498 | 0.073 |
13CO
![]() |
JCMT | 0.28 | 0.102 | 0.016 |
C18O
![]() |
JCMT | 0.14 | <0.062 (2![]() |
0.031 |
HCO+
![]() |
JCMT | 0.26 | 0.052 | 0.017 |
DCO+
![]() |
JCMT | 0.13 | <0.106 (2![]() |
0.053 |
CN
![]() |
JCMT | 0.27 | 0.038 | 0.017 |
CS
![]() |
JCMT | 0.27 | <0.040 (2![]() |
0.020 |
HCN
![]() |
JCMT | 0.53 | <0.024 (2![]() |
0.012 |
H![]() ![]() |
JCMT | 0.43 | <0.030 (2![]() |
0.015 |
H![]() ![]() |
JCMT | 0.27 | <0.032 (2![]() |
0.016 |
H![]() ![]() |
JCMT | 0.12 | <0.090 (2![]() |
0.045 |
N![]() ![]() |
JCMT | 0.12 | <0.126 (2![]() |
0.063 |
H![]() ![]() |
IRAM30 m | 0.21 | <0.016 (2![]() |
0.008 |
H![]() ![]() |
IRAM30 m | 1.37 | <0.006 (2![]() |
0.003 |
CH![]() ![]() |
IRAM30 m | 1.37 | <0.006 (2![]() |
0.003 |
Line | LkCa15 | TW Hya | HD 163296 | MWC 480 |
12CO
![]() |
N2071 IR | N2071 IR | IRC+10216 | W3(OH) |
IRC+10216 | IRAS16293-2422 | |||
13CO
![]() |
W3(OH) | IRC+10216 | NGC6334I | W3(OH) |
G34.3 | ||||
IRAS16293-2422 | ||||
C18O
![]() |
CRL618 | ... | ... | ... |
C18O
![]() |
W3(OH) | ... | ... | ... |
N1333IR4 | ||||
HCO+
![]() |
W3(OH) | N2071 IR | G34.3 | W3(OH) |
H13CO+
![]() |
IRC+10216 | IRC+10216 | ... | ... |
N2071 IR | ||||
DCO+
![]() |
N1333IR4 | IRAS16293-2422 | ... | ... |
IRC+10216 | ||||
CN
![]() |
CRL618 | CRL618 | CRL618 | CRL618 |
IRAS16293-2422 | G34.3 | |||
HCN
![]() |
CRL618 | IRC+10216 | IRAS16293-2422 | W3(OH) |
CRL618 | ||||
OMC1 | ||||
HNC
![]() |
... | N2071 IR | ... | ... |
DCN
![]() |
... | N2071 IR | ... | ... |
IRC+10216 | ||||
H13CN
![]() |
not available | ... | ... | ... |
IRAS16293-2422 | ||||
CS
![]() |
not observed | ... | ... | not observed |
SO
![]() |
... | ... | ... | ... |
H![]() ![]() |
... | N2071 IR | ... | ... |
H![]() ![]() |
CRL618 | N2071 IR | IRAS16293-2422 | CRL618 |
IRC+10216 | ||||
CH![]() ![]() |
... | not observed | ... | ... |
N![]() ![]() |
not available | not available | ... | not available |
H![]() ![]() |
not available | not available | ... | not avaialble |
Note. When a observation is carried out over more than one run, different standard sources are used depending on their availability. The entry ... indicates that the source was not observed in that particular line (cf. Table 6), so no standard was needed. |