Radial profiles of 1.2 mm continuum, N₂H⁺(1–0), SO(3₂–2₁), and C¹⁸O(1–0) emission towards the dense cores in L1517. The cores were ordered by decreasing central emission of N₂H⁺(1–0) to illustrate a possible evolutionary sequence (see text). The 1.2 mm data were averaged over 15′′-wide intervals to increase legibility. In each panel, the solid red line represents the best fit-model, and when an additional dashed line is presented, the best fit required a central abundance hole and the dashed line represents the constant abundance model for comparison. No modeling of core D was attempted for lack of mm-continuum data.