On the origin of phosphorus nitride in star-forming regions

Mininni, C.; Fontani, F.; Rivilla, V. M.; Beltrán, M. T.; Caselli, P.; Vasyunin, A. I.

doi:10.1093/mnrasl/sly026

Cited by 46 publications

(83 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…As shown in Figure 1 for the long-lived collapse case (see bottom panels), these upper limits are consistent with the low gas-phase PN abundances predicted at a few 10 5 yr after the end of the collapse in cold high-density cores (with hydrogen gas densities 2×10 5 cm −3 ). For massive starless cores, which show slightly warmer temperatures (with T∼25-30 K; Fontani et al 2016), the derived abundances of PN are ∼10 −11 and 5×10 −12 (Mininni et al 2018), in agreement with those predicted by our models under warm temperatures for n(H)2×10 5 cm −3 and timescales of a few 10 5 yr (see models with T=50 K in Figure 2). No upper limits are available for PO toward low-mass/high-mass cold cores.…”

Section: Pn and Posupporting

confidence: 87%

“…In this section, we compare our modeling results to the abundances of PN and PO measured toward low-mass/ high-mass starless/pre-stellar cores (Turner et al 1990;Mininni et al 2018), massive hot cores (Turner et al 1990;Rivilla et al 2016), GMCs in the Galactic center (Rivilla et al 2018), and molecular outflows (Yamaguchi et al 2011;Lefloch et al 2016). …”

Section: Pn and Pomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More recently, higher-sensitivity observations have revealed the presence of P-bearing molecules such as PN and PO in regions with active low-mass and high-mass star formation (Caux et al 2011;Yamaguchi et al 2011;Lefloch et al 2016;Rivilla et al 2016). Also, PN has been reported toward massive starless cores , which suggests that this molecule could form in relatively quiescent and cold gas (Mininni et al 2018). In all cases, PO seems to be slightly more abundant than PN (by factors of 2-3; see, e.g., Rivilla et al 2016), 3 and the PO/PN ratio can potentially be used as a length indicator of the pre-stellar collapse phase (see Aota & Aikawa 2012;Lefloch et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Chemistry of Phosphorus-bearing Molecules under Energetic Phenomena

Jiménez-Serra

Viti

Quénard

et al. 2018

ApJ

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For decades, the detection of phosphorus-bearing molecules in the interstellar medium was restricted to high-mass star-forming regions (e.g., SgrB2 and Orion KL) and the circumstellar envelopes of evolved stars. However, recent higher-sensitivity observations have revealed that molecules such as PN and PO are present not only toward cold massive cores and low-mass star-forming regions with PO/PN ratios 1 but also toward the giant molecular clouds in the Galactic center known to be exposed to highly energetic phenomena such as intense UV radiation fields, shock waves, and cosmic rays. In this paper, we carry out a comprehensive study of the chemistry of phosphorus-bearing molecules across different astrophysical environments that cover a range of physical conditions (cold molecular dark clouds, warm clouds, and hot cores/hot corinos) and are exposed to different physical processes and energetic phenomena (proto-stellar heating, shock waves, intense UV radiation, and cosmic rays). We show how the measured PO/PN ratio (either 1, as in, e.g., hot molecular cores, or 1, as in UV strongly illuminated environments) can provide constraints on the physical conditions and energetic processing of the source. We propose that the reaction P+OH→PO+H, not included in previous works, could be an efficient gas-phase PO formation route in shocks. Our modeling provides a template with which to study the detectability of P-bearing species not only in regions in our own Galaxy but also in extragalactic sources.

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Section: Pn and Posupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Pn and Pomentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Chemistry of Phosphorus-bearing Molecules under Energetic Phenomena

Jiménez-Serra

Viti

Quénard

et al. 2018

ApJ

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“…Previous works Mininni et al 2018) suggested a correlation between the presence of shocks and/or high velocity material traced by SiO, and the detection of PN. However, this tentative conclusion was based on a limited number of sources, and the samples were predominantly biased towards sources dominated by shocks.…”

Section: Source Samplementioning

confidence: 94%

Origin of the PN molecule in star-forming regions: the enlarged sample

Fontani

Rivilla

Tak

et al. 2019

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Phosphorus nitride (PN) is the P-bearing species with the highest number of detections in star-forming regions. Multi-line studies of the molecule have shown that the excitation temperature of PN is usually lower than the gas kinetic temperature, suggesting that PN is likely in conditions of sub-thermal excitation. We present an analysis of PN which takes the possible sub-thermal excitation conditions into account in a sample of 24 massive star-forming regions. We observed PN (2-1), (3-2), (4-3), and (6-5) with the IRAM-30m and APEX telescopes and detected PN lines in 15 of them. Together with 9 similar sources detected in PN in previous works, we have analysed the largest sample of star-forming regions to date, made of 33 sources with 24 detections in total (among which 13 are new detections). Hence, we have increased the number of star-forming regions detected in PN by more than a factor 2. Our analysis indicates that the PN lines are indeed sub-thermally excited, but well described by a single excitation temperature. We have compared line profiles and fractional abundances of PN and SiO, a typical shock tracer, and found that almost all objects detected in PN have high-velocity SiO wings. Moreover, the SiO and PN abundances with respect to H 2 are correlated over several orders of magnitude, and uncorrelated with gas temperature. This clearly shows that the production of PN is strongly linked to the presence of shocked gas, and rules out alternative scenarios based on thermal evaporation from iced grain mantles.

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“…Small P-bearing molecules including PO, PN, CP, and HCP have been detected towards evolved stars (Agúndez et al 2007;Tenenbaum et al 2007;Ziurys et al 2007;Milam et al 2008), but attempts to detect these molecules towards active star-forming regions have had mixed results. In massive star forming regions, PN has been found fairly commonly (Turner & Bally 1987;Fontani et al 2016;Mininni et al 2018), while PO has been detected towards only two high-mass star forming regions despite numerous searches (Matthews et al 1987;Fontani et al 2016;Rivilla et al 2016). In low-mass star forming regions, PN and PO were detected in the outflow shock of the protostar L1157, but not towards the protostellar envelope (Yamaguchi et al 2011;Lefloch et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection of Phosphorus-bearing Molecules toward a Solar-type Protostar

Bergner

Öberg

Walker

et al. 2019

ApJL

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Phosphorus is a key ingredient in terrestrial biochemistry, but is rarely observed in the molecular ISM and therefore little is known about how it is inherited during the star and planet formation sequence. We present observations of the phosphorus-bearing molecules PO and PN towards the Class I low-mass protostar B1-a using the IRAM 30m telescope, representing the second detection of phosphorus carriers in a Solar-type star forming region. The P/H abundance contained in PO and PN is ∼10 −10 -10 −9 depending on the assumed source size, accounting for just 0.05-0.5% of the solar phosphorus abundance and implying significant sequestration of phosphorus in refractory material. Based on a comparison of the PO and PN line profiles with the shock tracers SiO, SO 2 , and CH 3 OH, the phosphorus molecule emission seems to originate from shocked gas and is likely associated with a protostellar outflow. We find a PO/PN column density ratio of ∼1-3, which is consistent with the values measured in the shocked outflow of the low-mass protostar L1157, the massive star-forming regions W51 and W3(OH), and the galactic center GMC G+0.693-0.03. This narrow range of PO/PN ratios across sources with a range of environmental conditions is surprising, and likely encodes information on how phosphorus carriers are stored in grain mantles.

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On the origin of phosphorus nitride in star-forming regions

Cited by 46 publications

References 35 publications

The Chemistry of Phosphorus-bearing Molecules under Energetic Phenomena

The Chemistry of Phosphorus-bearing Molecules under Energetic Phenomena

Origin of the PN molecule in star-forming regions: the enlarged sample

Detection of Phosphorus-bearing Molecules toward a Solar-type Protostar

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