Modelling line profiles in infalling cores

Abstract

Results are presented from a model of molecular line formation in collapsing star-forming cores. The study includes, for the first time, a self-consistent chemical and dynamical model which is then directly coupled to an appropriate radiative transfer model. The assumptions of chemical uniformity or simple monotonic variations within such cores are shown to be unacceptable. The results show that the abundance variations and the line profiles are highly sensitive to the assumed values of the free parameters in the chemical model. Extreme caution is therefore advised in the quantitative analysis of emission-line profiles from infall sources. The implied degeneracy can be overcome by multiple line-of-sight observations of many species and transitions.