Gas phase Elemental abundances in Molecular cloudS (GEMS)

VI. A sulphur journey across star-forming regions: study of thioformaldehyde emission

¹ Observatorio Astronómico Nacional (OAN), Alfonso XII, 3, 28014 Madrid, Spain
e-mail: [email protected]
² School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, National Institute of Science Education and Research, Jatni 752050 Odisha, India
³ Homi Bhabha National Institute, Training School Complex, Anushaktinagar, Mumbai 400094, India
⁴ Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, 85748 Garching, Germany
⁵ Laboratoire d’astrophysique de Bordeaux, Univ. Bordeaux, CNRS, B18N, allée Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 33615 Pessac, France
⁶ LERMA, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, 92190 Meudon, France
⁷ Center for Astrophysics – Harvard & Smithsonian, 60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
⁸ Centro de Astrobiología, INTA-CSIC, Torrejón de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain

Received: 17 December 2021
Accepted: 17 March 2022

Abstract

Context. In the context of the IRAM 30 m Large Program Gas phase Elemental abundances in Molecular CloudS (GEMS), we present a study of thioformaldehyde (H₂CS) and its deuterated versions (HDCS and D₂CS) in several starless cores located in a selected set of star-forming filaments of Taurus, Perseus, and Orion. These regions have different star formation activities and, therefore, distinct physical and chemical conditions.

Aims. Our goal is to investigate the influence of the environmental conditions on the abundances of these molecules in the cores, as well as the effect of time evolution.

Methods. We have modelled the observed lines of H₂CS, HDCS, and D₂CS using the radiative transfer code RADEX. We have also used the chemical code Nautilus to model the evolution of these species depending on the characteristics of the starless cores.

Results. We derive column densities and abundances for all the cores. We also derive deuterium fractionation ratios, D_frac, which allow us to determine and compare the evolutionary stage between different parts of each star-forming region. Our results indicate that the north region of the B 213 filament in Taurus is more evolved than the south, while the north-eastern part of Perseus presents an earlier evolutionary stage than the south-western zone. Model results also show that D_frac decreases with the cosmic-ray ionisation rate, while it increases with density and with the degree of sulphur depletion. In particular, we can only reproduce the observations when the initial sulphur depletion in the starless cores is at least one order of magnitude lower than the solar elemental sulphur abundance.

Conclusions. The progressive increase in HDCS/H₂CS and D₂CS/H₂CS with time makes these ratios powerful tools for deriving the chemical evolutionary stage of starless cores. However, they cannot be used to derive the temperature of these regions, since both ratios present a similar evolution at two different temperature ranges (~7–11 K and ~ 15–19 K). Regarding chemistry, (deuterated) thioformaldehyde is mainly formed through gas-phase reactions (double-replacement and neutral-neutral displacement reactions), while surface chemistry plays an important role as a destruction mechanism.