English

Diagnosing shock temperature with NH$_3$ and H$_2$O profiles

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2016-08-31 v1

Abstract

In a previous study of the L1157 B1 shocked cavity, a comparison between NH3_3(10_0-000_0) and H2_2O(110_{\rm 10}--101_{\rm 01}) transitions showed a striking difference in the profiles, with H2_2O emitting at definitely higher velocities. This behaviour was explained as a result of the high-temperature gas-phase chemistry occurring in the postshock gas in the B1 cavity of this outflow. If the differences in behaviour between ammonia and water are indeed a consequence of the high gas temperatures reached during the passage of a shock, then one should find such differences to be ubiquitous among chemically rich outflows. In order to determine whether the difference in profiles observed between NH3_3 and H2_2O is unique to L1157 or a common characteristic of chemically rich outflows, we have performed Herschel-HIFI observations of the NH3_3(10_0-00_0) line at 572.5 GHz in a sample of 8 bright low-mass outflow spots already observed in the H2_2O(110_{\rm 10}--101_{\rm 01}) line within the WISH KP. We detected the ammonia emission at high-velocities at most of the outflows positions. In all cases, the water emission reaches higher velocities than NH3_3, proving that this behaviour is not exclusive of the L1157-B1 position. Comparisons with a gas-grain chemical and shock model confirms, for this larger sample, that the behaviour of ammonia is determined principally by the temperature of the gas.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1607.05343,
  title  = {Diagnosing shock temperature with NH$_3$ and H$_2$O profiles},
  author = {A. I. Gómez-Ruiz and C. Codella and S. Viti and I. Jiménez-Serra and G. Navarra and R. Bachiller and P. Caselli and A. Fuente and A. Gusdorf and B. Lefloch and A. Lorenzani and B. Nisini},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1607.05343},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

Accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society