Correlating infall with deuterium fractionation in dense cores

Abstract

We present a survey of HCO+ (3-2) observations pointed toward dense cores with previous measurements of N(N2D+)/N(N 2H+). Of the 26 cores in this survey, 5 show the spectroscopic signature of outward motion, 9 exhibit neither inward nor outward motion, 11 appear to be infalling, and 1 is not detected. We compare the degree of deuterium fractionation with infall velocities calculated from the HCO + spectra and find that those cores with [D]/[H] > 0.1 are more likely to have the signature of inward motions than cores with smaller [D]/[H] ratios. Infall motions are also much more common in cores with masses exceeding their thermal Jeans masses. The fastest infall velocity measured belongs to one of the two protostellar cores in our survey, L1521F, and the observed motions are typically on the order of the sound speed. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.