Sulfur dioxide (SO2) ice has been tentatively detected in protostellar envelopes, but its reliability as a solid-state sulfur reservoir remains unclear. We present new measurements of SO2 ice from 6.8-8.5 μm toward four Class 0 protostars observed with JWST's Mid-Infrared (MIRI) Medium Resolution Spectrometer, as part of the COMs ORigin Investigated by the Next-generation Observatory in Space (CORINOS) program. The sample spans a luminosity range from 1 L⊙ (B335, IRAS 15398-3359) to 10 L⊙ (L483, Ser-emb~7). To assess continuum placement uncertainty in absorption spectra, we apply randomized polynomial fits over the restricted region. We fit laboratory spectra from the Leiden Ice Database for Astrochemistry (LIDA) using the open-source Python library Omnifit. We detect the 7.7 μm CH4 band in all sources and find its column density robust to baseline choice, providing a reference for evaluating the weaker SO2 feature on its blue shoulder and quantifying baseline-related uncertainty. Three SO2 laboratory ices were tested: pure SO2 ice yields 0.3-1.2% of volatile sulfur may be locked in SO2 ice (lower and upper limits); CH3OH:SO2 ice gives 0.02-0.18%, but with lower quality fitting. The best-fitting H2O:SO2 ice yields 0.2-0.9%, which we consider the most realistic. These ranges define plausible bounds on SO2 ice abundances in our sample. We find evidence for SO2 in Ser-emb 7, L483, and IRAS 15398-3359, but emphasize the noisy spectrum of B335 prevents a definitive detection. Comparing SO2 ice abundances across the different environments, we assess how conditions influence role of SO2 as a potential sulfur reservoir and implications for the longstanding ``missing sulfur'' problem.
@article{arxiv.2512.20820,
title = {CORINOS IV: Quantifying Baseline-Fitting Uncertainties in SO$_2$ Ice Measurements with JWST/MIRI},
author = {Rachel E. Gross and Yao-Lun Yang and L. Ilsedore Cleeves and Ewine F. van Dishoeck and Robin T. Garrod and Mihwa Jin and Nami Sakai and Christopher N. Shingledecker and JaeYeong Kim and Jennifer B. Bergner and Neal J. Evans and Joel D. Green and Chul-Hwan Kim and Jeong-Eun Lee and Yuki Okoda and Will R. M. Rocha and Brielle Shope and Himanshu Tyagi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.20820},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in ApJ, 28 pages, 14 figures