Gas phase Elemental abundances in Molecular cloudS (GEMS) II. On the quest for the sulphur reservoir in molecular clouds: the H2S case.

CONTEXT: Sulphur is one of the most abundant elements in the Universe. Surprisingly, sulphuretted molecules are not as abundant as expected in the interstellar medium and the identity of the main sulphur reservoir is still an open question. AIMS: Our goal is to investigate the H2S chemistry in dark clouds, as this stable molecule is a potential sulphur reservoir. METHODS: Using millimeter observations of CS, SO, H2S, and their isotopologues, we determine the physical conditions and H2S abundances along the cores TMC 1-C, TMC 1-CP, and Barnard 1b. The gas-grain model Nautilus is used to model the sulphur chemistry and explore the impact of photo-desorption and chemical desorption on the H2S abundance. RESULTS: Our modeling shows that chemical desorption is the main source of gas-phase H2S in dark cores. The measured H2S abundance can only be fitted if we assume that the chemical desorption rate decreases by more than a factor of 10 when n H > 2 × 104. This change in the desorption rate is consistent with the formation of thick H2O and CO ice mantles on grain surfaces. The observed SO and H2S abundances are in good agreement with our predictions adopting an undepleted value of the sulphur abundance. However, the CS abundance is overestimated by a factor of 5 - 10. Along the three cores, atomic S is predicted to be the main sulphur reservoir. CONCLUSIONS: The gaseous H2S abundance is well reproduced, assuming undepleted sulphur abundance and chemical desorption as the main source of H2S. The behavior of the observed H2S abundance suggests a changing desorption efficiency, which would probe the snowline in these cold cores. Our model, however, highly overestimates the observed gas-phase CS abundance. Given the uncertainty in the sulphur chemistry, we can only conclude that our data are consistent with a cosmic elemental S abundance with an uncertainty of a factor of 10.

Dynamics of cluster-forming hub-filament systems: The case of the high-mass star-forming complex Monoceros R2.

CONTEXT: High-mass stars and star clusters commonly form within hub-filament systems. Monoceros R2 (hereafter Mon R2), at a distance of 830 pc, harbors one of the closest such systems, making it an excellent target for case studies. AIMS: We investigate the morphology, stability and dynamical properties of the Mon R2 hub-filament system. METHODS: We employ observations of the 13CO and C18O 1→0 and 2→1 lines obtained with the IRAM-30m telescope. We also use H2 column density maps derived from Herschel dust emission observations. RESULTS: We identified the filamentary network in Mon R2 with the DisPerSE algorithm and characterized the individual filaments as either main (converging into the hub) or secondary (converging to a main filament) filaments. The main filaments have line masses of 30-100 M ⊙ pc-1 and show signs of fragmentation, while the secondary filaments have line masses of 12-60 M ⊙ pc-1 and show fragmentation only sporadically. In the context of Ostriker's hydrostatic filament model, the main filaments are thermally supercritical. If non-thermal motions are included, most of them are trans-critical. Most of the secondary filaments are roughly transcritical regardless of whether non-thermal motions are included or not. From the morphology and kinematics of the main filaments, we estimate a mass accretion rate of 10-4-10-3 M ⊙ yr-1 into the central hub. The secondary filaments accrete into the main filaments with a rate of 0.1-0.4×10-4 M ⊙ yr-1. The main filaments extend into the central hub. Their velocity gradients increase towards the hub, suggesting acceleration of the gas.We estimate that with the observed infall velocity, the mass-doubling time of the hub is ~ 2:5 Myr, ten times larger than the free-fall time, suggesting a dynamically old region. These timescales are comparable with the chemical age of the Hii region. Inside the hub, the main filaments show a ring- or a spiral-like morphology that exhibits rotation and infall motions. One possible explanation for the morphology is that gas is falling into the central cluster following a spiral-like pattern.

Gas phase Elemental abundances in Molecular cloudS (GEMS): I. The prototypical dark cloud TMC 1.

GEMS is an IRAM 30m Large Program whose aim is determining the elemental depletions and the ionization fraction in a set of prototypical star-forming regions. This paper presents the first results from the prototypical dark cloud TMC 1. Extensive millimeter observations have been carried out with the IRAM 30m telescope (3 mm and 2 mm) and the 40m Yebes telescope (1.3 cm and 7 mm) to determine the fractional abundances of CO, HCO+, HCN, CS, SO, HCS+, and N2H+ in three cuts which intersect the dense filament at the well-known positions TMC 1-CP, TMC 1-NH3, and TMC 1-C, covering a visual extinction range from A V ~ 3 to ~20 mag. Two phases with differentiated chemistry can be distinguished: i) the translucent envelope with molecular hydrogen densities of 1-5×103 cm-3; and ii) the dense phase, located at A V > 10 mag, with molecular hydrogen densities >104 cm-3. Observations and modeling show that the gas phase abundances of C and O progressively decrease along the C+/C/CO transition zone (A V ~ 3 mag) where C/H ~ 8×10-5 and C/O~0.8-1, until the beginning of the dense phase at A V ~ 10 mag. This is consistent with the grain temperatures being below the CO evaporation temperature in this region. In the case of sulfur, a strong depletion should occur before the translucent phase where we estimate a S/H ~ (0.4 - 2.2) ×10-6, an abundance ~7-40 times lower than the solar value. A second strong depletion must be present during the formation of the thick icy mantles to achieve the values of S/H measured in the dense cold cores (S/H ~8×10-8). Based on our chemical modeling, we constrain the value of ζ H2 to ~ (0.5 - 1.8) ×10-16 s-1 in the translucent cloud.

Sub-arcsecond imaging of the water emission in Arp 220.

AIMS: Extragalactic observations of water emission can provide valuable insights into the excitation of the interstellar medium. In particular they allow us to investigate the excitation mechanisms in obscured nuclei, i.e. whether an active galactic nucleus or a starburst dominate. METHODS: We use sub-arcsecond resolution observations to tackle the nature of the water emission in Arp 220. ALMA Band 5 science verification observations of the 183 GHz H2O 313-220 line, in conjunction with new ALMA Band 7 H2O 515-422 data at 325 GHz, and supplementary 22 GHz H2O 616 - 523 VLA observations, are used to better constrain the parameter space in the excitation modelling of the water lines. RESULTS: We detect 183 GHz H2O and 325 GHz water emission towards the two compact nuclei at the center of Arp 220, being brighter in Arp 220 West. The emission at these two frequencies is compared to previous single-dish data and does not show evidence of variability. The 183 and 325 GHz lines show similar spectra and kinematics, but the 22 GHz profile is significantly different in both nuclei due to a blend with an NH3 absorption line. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the most likely scenario to cause the observed water emission in Arp 220 is a large number of independent masers originating from numerous star-forming regions.

The first CO+ image: I. Probing the HI/H2 layer around the ultracompact HII region Mon R2.

The CO+ reactive ion is thought to be a tracer of the boundary between a HII region and the hot molecular gas. In this study, we present the spatial distribution of the CO+ rotational emission toward the Mon R2 star-forming region. The CO+ emission presents a clumpy ring-like morphology, arising from a narrow dense layer around the HII region. We compare the CO+ distribution with other species present in photon-dominated regions (PDR), such as [CII] 158 µm, H2 S(3) rotational line at 9.3 µm, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and HCO+. We find that the CO+ emission is spatially coincident with the PAHs and [CII] emission. This confirms that the CO+ emission arises from a narrow dense layer of the HI/H2 interface. We have determined the CO+ fractional abundance, relative to C+ toward three positions. The abundances range from 0.1 to 1.9 ×10-10 and are in good agreement with previous chemical model, which predicts that the production of CO+ in PDRs only occurs in dense regions with high UV fields. The CO+ linewidth is larger than those found in molecular gas tracers, and their central velocity are blue-shifted with respect to the molecular gas velocity. We interpret this as a hint that the CO+ is probing photo-evaporating clump surfaces.

High molecular gas fractions in normal massive star-forming galaxies in the young Universe.

Stars form from cold molecular interstellar gas. As this is relatively rare in the local Universe, galaxies like the Milky Way form only a few new stars per year. Typical massive galaxies in the distant Universe formed stars an order of magnitude more rapidly. Unless star formation was significantly more efficient, this difference suggests that young galaxies were much more molecular-gas rich. Molecular gas observations in the distant Universe have so far largely been restricted to very luminous, rare objects, including mergers and quasars, and accordingly we do not yet have a clear idea about the gas content of more normal (albeit massive) galaxies. Here we report the results of a survey of molecular gas in samples of typical massive-star-forming galaxies at mean redshifts of about 1.2 and 2.3, when the Universe was respectively 40% and 24% of its current age. Our measurements reveal that distant star forming galaxies were indeed gas rich, and that the star formation efficiency is not strongly dependent on cosmic epoch. The average fraction of cold gas relative to total galaxy baryonic mass at z = 2.3 and z = 1.2 is respectively about 44% and 34%, three to ten times higher than in today's massive spiral galaxies. The slow decrease between z approximately 2 and z approximately 1 probably requires a mechanism of semi-continuous replenishment of fresh gas to the young galaxies.

Extragalactic chemistry of molecular gas: lessons from the local universe.

Observational constraints provided by high resolution and high sensitivity observations of external galaxies made in the millimetre and sub-millimetre range have started to put on a firm footing the study of the extragalactic chemistry of molecular gas. In particular, the availability of multi-species and multi-line surveys of nearby galaxies is central to the interpretation of existent and forthcoming millimetre observations of the high redshift universe. Probing the physical and chemical status of molecular gas in starbursts and active galaxies (AGN) requires the use of specific tracers of the relevant energetic phenomena that are known to be at play in these galaxies: large-scale shocks, strong UV fields, cosmic rays and X-rays. We present below the first results of an ongoing survey, allying the IRAM 30 m telescope with the Plateau de Bure interferometer (PdBI), devoted to the study of the chemistry of molecular gas in a sample of starbursts and AGN of the local universe. These observations highlight the existence of a strong chemical differentiation in the molecular disks of starbursts and AGN.