Molecular line profiles as diagnostics of protostellar collapse: modelling the `blue asymmetry' in inside-out infall

dc.creatorTsamis, Y. G.
dc.creatorRawlings, J. M. C.
dc.creatorYates, J. A.
dc.creatorViti, S.
dc.date2008-03-04
dc.date2008-05-14
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T09:52:43Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T09:52:43Z
dc.descriptionThe evolution of star-forming core analogues undergoing inside-out collapse is studied with a multi-point chemodynamical model which self-consistently computes the abundance distribution of chemical species in the core. For several collapse periods the output chemistry of infall tracer species such as HCO+, CS, and N2H+, is then coupled to an accelerated Lambda-iteration radiative transfer code, which predicts the emerging molecular line profiles using two different input gas/dust temperature distributions. We investigate the sensitivity of the predicted spectral line profiles and line asymmetry ratios to the core temperature distribution, the time-dependent model chemistry, as well as to ad hoc abundance distributions. The line asymmetry is found to be strongly dependent on the adopted chemical abundance distribution. In general, models with a warm central region show higher values of blue asymmetry in optically thick HCO+ and CS lines than models with a starless core temperature profile. We find that in the formal context of Shu-type inside-out infall, and in the absence of rotation or outflows, the relative blue asymmetry of certain HCO+ and CS transitions is a function of time and, subject to the foregoing caveats, can act as a collapse chronometer. The sensitivity of simulated HCO+ line profiles to linear radial variations, subsonic or supersonic, of the internal turbulence field is investigated in the separate case of static cores.
dc.descriptionAccepted to MNRAS; 20 pages, 13 figs
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/0803.0519
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/0803.0519
dc.identifierMon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 388 (2008) 898-912
dc.identifierdoi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.13464.x
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/165694
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.titleMolecular line profiles as diagnostics of protostellar collapse: modelling the `blue asymmetry' in inside-out infall
dc.typetext

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