Evolutionary view through the starless cores in Taurus: deuteration in TMC 1-C and TMC 1-CP

Abstract

The chemical and physical evolution of starless and pre-stellar cores are of paramount importance to understanding the process of star formation. The Taurus Molecular Cloud cores TMC 1-C and TMC 1-CP share similar initial conditions and provide an excellent opportunity to understand the evolution of the pre-stellar core phase. We investigated the evolutionary stage of starless cores based on observations towards the prototypical dark cores TMC 1-C and TMC 1-CP, mapping them in the CS $3\to 2$, C${}^{34}$S $3\to 2$, ${}^{13}$CS $2\to 1$, DCN $1\to 0$, DCN $2\to 1$, DNC $1\to 0$, DNC $2\to 1$, DN${}^{13}$C $1\to 0$, DN${}^{13}$C $2\to 1$, N${}_2$H${}^{+}$ $1\to 0$, and N${}_2$D${}^{+}$ $1\to 0$ transitions. We performed a multi-transitional study of CS and its isotopologs, DCN, and DNC lines to characterize the physical and chemical properties of these cores. We studied their chemistry using the state-of-the-art gas-grain chemical code Nautilus and pseudo time-dependent models to determine their evolutionary stage. Observational diagnostics seem to indicate that TMC 1-C is in a later evolutionary stage than TMC 1-CP, with a chemical age $\sim$1 Myr. TMC 1-C shows signs of being an evolved core at the onset of star formation, while TMC 1-CP appears to be in an earlier evolutionary stage due to a more recent formation or, alternatively, a collapse slowed down by a magnetic support.

26 pages, 10 figures