First Detections of PN, PO, and PO+ toward a Shocked Low-mass Starless Core
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2025
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| author | Scibelli, Samantha Megías, Andrés Jiménez-Serra, Izaskun Shirley, Yancy Bergner, Jennifer Asensio, Judit Ferrer Garrod, Robin T. Bonfand, Mélisse Pokorny-Yadav, Anissa |
| author_facet | Scibelli, Samantha Megías, Andrés Jiménez-Serra, Izaskun Shirley, Yancy Bergner, Jennifer Asensio, Judit Ferrer Garrod, Robin T. Bonfand, Mélisse Pokorny-Yadav, Anissa |
| contents | Phosphorus is a key element that plays an essential role in biological processes important for living organisms on Earth. The origin and connection of phosphorus-bearing molecules to early Solar system objects and star-forming molecular clouds is therefore of great interest, yet there are limited observations throughout different stages of low-mass ($M < $ a few M$_\odot$) star formation. Observations from the Yebes 40 m and IRAM 30 m telescopes detect for the first time in the 7mm, 3mm, and 2mm bands multiple transitions of PN and PO, as well as a single transition of PO$^{+}$, toward a low-mass starless core. The presence of PN, PO and PO$^{+}$ is kinematically correlated with bright SiO(1-0) emission. Our results reveal not only that shocks are the main driver of releasing phosphorus from dust grains and into the gas-phase, but that the emission originates from gas not affiliated with the shock itself, but quiescent gas that has been shocked in the recent past. From radiative transfer calculations, the PO/PN abundance ratio is found to be $3.1^{+0.4}_{-0.6}$, consistent with other high-mass and low-mass star-forming regions. This first detection of PO$^{+}$ toward any low-mass star-forming region reveals a PO$^{+}$/PO ratio of $0.0115^{+0.0008}_{-0.0009}$, a factor of ten lower than previously determined from observations of a Galactic Center molecular cloud, suggesting its formation can occur under more standard Galactic cosmic-ray ionization rates. These results motivate the need for additional observations that can better disentangle the physical mechanisms and chemical drivers of this precursor of prebiotic chemistry. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_17849 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | First Detections of PN, PO, and PO+ toward a Shocked Low-mass Starless Core Scibelli, Samantha Megías, Andrés Jiménez-Serra, Izaskun Shirley, Yancy Bergner, Jennifer Asensio, Judit Ferrer Garrod, Robin T. Bonfand, Mélisse Pokorny-Yadav, Anissa Astrophysics of Galaxies Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Solar and Stellar Astrophysics Phosphorus is a key element that plays an essential role in biological processes important for living organisms on Earth. The origin and connection of phosphorus-bearing molecules to early Solar system objects and star-forming molecular clouds is therefore of great interest, yet there are limited observations throughout different stages of low-mass ($M < $ a few M$_\odot$) star formation. Observations from the Yebes 40 m and IRAM 30 m telescopes detect for the first time in the 7mm, 3mm, and 2mm bands multiple transitions of PN and PO, as well as a single transition of PO$^{+}$, toward a low-mass starless core. The presence of PN, PO and PO$^{+}$ is kinematically correlated with bright SiO(1-0) emission. Our results reveal not only that shocks are the main driver of releasing phosphorus from dust grains and into the gas-phase, but that the emission originates from gas not affiliated with the shock itself, but quiescent gas that has been shocked in the recent past. From radiative transfer calculations, the PO/PN abundance ratio is found to be $3.1^{+0.4}_{-0.6}$, consistent with other high-mass and low-mass star-forming regions. This first detection of PO$^{+}$ toward any low-mass star-forming region reveals a PO$^{+}$/PO ratio of $0.0115^{+0.0008}_{-0.0009}$, a factor of ten lower than previously determined from observations of a Galactic Center molecular cloud, suggesting its formation can occur under more standard Galactic cosmic-ray ionization rates. These results motivate the need for additional observations that can better disentangle the physical mechanisms and chemical drivers of this precursor of prebiotic chemistry. |
| title | First Detections of PN, PO, and PO+ toward a Shocked Low-mass Starless Core |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Solar and Stellar Astrophysics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.17849 |