C18O Depletion in Starless Cores in Taurus

Abstract

We present here findings for C18O depletion in eight starless cores in Taurus: TMC-2, L1498, L1512, L1489, L1517B, L1521E, L1495A-S, and L1544. We compare observations of the C18O J=2-1 transition taken with the ALMA prototype receiver on the Heinrich Hertz Submillimeter Telescope to results of radiative transfer modeling using RATRAN. We use temperature and density profiles calculated from dust continuum radiative transfer models to model the C18O emission. We present modeling of three cores, TMC-2, L1489, and L1495A-S, which have not been modeled before and compare our results for the five cores with published models. We find that all of the cores but one, L1521E, are substantially depleted. We also find that varying the temperature profiles of these model cores has a discernable effect, and varying the central density has an even larger effect. We find no trends with depletion radius or depletion fraction with the density or temperature of these cores, suggesting that the physical structure alone is insufficient to fully constrain evolutionary state. We are able to place tighter constraints on the radius at which C18O is depleted than the absolute fraction of depletion. As the timeline of chemical depletion depends sensitively on the fraction of depletion, this difficulty in constraining depletion fraction makes comparison with other timescales, such as the free-fall timescale, very difficult. Keywords: Stars:Formation -- ISM:abundances-- ISM:clouds -- Individual Objects: TMC-2, L1498, L1512, L1489, L1517B, L1521E, L1495A-S, L1544

25 pages, 16 Figures, Accepted to The Astrophysical Journal

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