Time-dependent evaporation of icy mantles in hot cores

Abstract

Hot cores are rich in saturated molecules that are believed to arise from the evaporation of molecular ices on dust grains. It is usually assumed that the ices are evaporated instantaneously when a nearby star is switched on. We have developed a new model in which the grain temperature rises over a time-scale determined by the switch-on time of the star. This time-scale is likely to be comparable to the lifetime of the hot cores. In consequence, evaporation of different species occurs at different epochs, leading to chemical differentiation in time and space within the hot core. By computing qualitative models of hot cores, we show that observations of hot cores may be able to constrain the rise time of hot stars to the main sequence.