Related papers: Probing Pre-Protosellar Cores with Formaldehyde

Determining the level of chemical complexity within dense starless and gravitationally bound prestellar cores is crucial for constructing chemical models, which subsequently constrain the initial chemical conditions of star formation. We…

Seven isolated, nearby low-mass starless molecular cloud cores have been observed as part of the Herschel key program Earliest Phases of Star formation (EPoS). By applying a ray-tracing technique to the obtained continuum emission and…

Accurate techniques which allow for the derivation of the spatial density in star formation regions are rare. A technique which has found application for the derivation of spatial densities in Galactic star formation regions utilizes the…

Context. The study of pre-stellar cores (PSCs) suffers from a lack of undepleted species to trace the gas physical properties in their very dense inner parts. Aims. We want to carry out detailed modelling of N2H+ and N2D+ cuts across the…

Deuteration is a crucial tool to understand the complexity of interstellar chemical processes, especially when they involve the interplay of gas-phase and grain-surface chemistry. In the case of multiple deuteration, comparing observation…

Methanol and its precursor formaldehyde are among the most studied organic molecules in the interstellar medium and are abundant in the gaseous and solid phases. We recently developed a model to simulate CO hydrogenation via H atoms on…

Pre-stellar cores are the basic unit for the formation of stars and stellar systems. The anatomy of the physical and chemical structures of pre-stellar cores is critical for understanding the star formation process. L1544 is a prototypical…

Prestellar cores exhibit a strong chemical differentiation, which is mainly caused by the freeze-out of molecules onto the grain surfaces. Understanding this chemical structure is important, because molecular lines are often used as probes…

We have modeled the emission from dust in pre-protostellar cores, including a self-consistent calculation of the temperature distribution for each input density distribution. Model density distributions include Bonnor-Ebert spheres and…

We study the kinematics of the dense gas of starless and protostellar cores traced by the N2D+(2-1), N2H+(1-0), DCO+(2-1), and H13CO+(1-0) transitions along the L1495 filament and the kinematic links between the cores and the surrounding…

We present C18O observations of the pre-stellar core L1689B, in the (J=3-2) and (J=2-1) rotational transitions, taken at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii. We use a lambda-iteration radiative transfer code to model the data. We…

Using the IRAM 30-m telescope and the 15-m JCMT, we explore the value of para-formaldehyde (p-H_2CO) as a tracer of density and temperature of the molecular gas in external galaxies. The target of our observations are the lobes of the…

Spectral lines from formaldehyde (H2CO) molecules at cm wavelengths are typically detected in absorption and trace a broad range of environments, from diffuse gas to giant molecular clouds. In contrast, thermal emission of formaldehyde…

Deuterated molecules are good tracers of the evolutionary stage of star-forming cores. During the star formation process, deuterated molecules are expected to be enhanced in cold, dense pre-stellar cores and to deplete after protostellar…

In the centre of pre-stellar cores, deuterium fractionation is enhanced due to the low temperatures and high densities. Therefore, the chemistry of deuterated molecules can be used to study the earliest stages of star formation. We analyse…

Velocity profiles of ground state lines of H2D+, HC18O+ and N2H+, observed previously with the CSO and IRAM 30m telescopes, are modeled with a Monte Carlo radiative transfer program to study the temperature, density and velocity structure…

With a goal toward deriving the physical conditions in external galaxies, we present a survey of the formaldehyde emission in a sample of starburst systems. By extending a technique used to derive the spatial density in star formation…

[Abridged] We present a molecular survey of the starless cores L1498 and L1517B. These cores have been selected for their relative isolation and close-to-round shape, and they have been observed in a number of lines of 13 molecular species…

The detection of complex organic molecules (COMs) toward cold sources such as pre-stellar cores (with T<10 K), has challenged our understanding of the formation processes of COMs in the interstellar medium. Recent modelling on COM chemistry…

Formaldehyde (H$_2$CO) is an important precursor to organics like methanol (CH$_3$OH). It is important to understand the conditions that produce H$_2$CO and prebiotic molecules during star and planet formation. H$_2$CO possesses both…