Person:

Huang, Jane

Observations of deuterium fractionation in the solar system, and in interstellar and circumstellar material, are commonly used to constrain the formation environment of volatiles. Toward protoplanetary disks, this approach has been limited by the small number of detected deuterated molecules, i.e., DCO+ and DCN. Based on ALMA Cycle 2 observations toward the disk around the T Tauri star AS 209, we report the first detection of N2D+ (J = 3–2) in a protoplanetary disk. These data are used together with previous Submillimeter Array observations of N2H+ (J = 3–2) to estimate a disk-averaged D/H ratio of 0.3–0.5, an order of magnitude higher than disk-averaged ratios previously derived for DCN/HCN and DCO+/HCO+ around other young stars. The high fractionation in N2H+ is consistent with model predictions. The presence of abundant N2D+ toward AS 209 also suggests that N2D+ and the N2D+/N2H+ ratio can be developed into effective probes of deuterium chemistry, kinematics, and ionization processes outside the CO snow line of disks.

The deuterium enrichment of molecules is sensitive to their formation environment. Constraining patterns of deuterium chemistry in protoplanetary disks is therefore useful for probing how material is inherited or reprocessed throughout the stages of star and planet formation. We present ALMA observations at ∼ 0.6 00 resolution of DCO+, H13CO+, DCN, and H13CN in the full disks around T Tauri stars AS 209 and IM Lup, in the transition disks around T Tauri stars V4046 Sgr and LkCa 15, and in the full disks around Herbig Ae stars MWC 480 and HD 163296. We also present ALMA observations of HCN in the IM Lup disk. DCN, DCO+, and H13CO+ are detected in all disks, and H13CN in all but the IM Lup disk. We find efficient deuterium fractionation for the sample, with estimates of disk-averaged DCO+/HCO+ and DCN/HCN abundance ratios ranging from ∼0.02–0.06 and ∼0.005–0.08, respectively, which is comparable to values reported for other interstellar environments. The relative distributions of DCN and DCO+ vary between disks, suggesting that multiple formation pathways may be needed to explain the diverse emission morphologies. In addition, gaps and rings observed in both H13CO+ and DCO+ emission provide new evidence that DCO+ bears a complex relationship with the location of the midplane CO snowline.

H2CO is one of the most readily detected organic molecules in protoplanetary disks. Yet its distribution and dominant formation pathway(s) remain largely unconstrained. To address these issues, we present ALMA observations of two H2CO lines (${3}{12}\mbox{--}{2}{11}$ and ${5}{15}\mbox{--}{4}{14}$) at 0farcs5 (~30 au) spatial resolution toward the disk around the nearby T Tauri star TW Hya. Emission from both lines is spatially resolved, showing a central depression, a peak at 0farcs4 radius, and a radial decline at larger radii with a bump at ~1'', near the millimeter continuum edge. We adopt a physical model for the disk and use toy models to explore the radial and vertical H2CO abundance structure. We find that the observed emission implies the presence of at least two distinct H2CO gas reservoirs: (1) a warm and unresolved inner component (<10 au), and (2) an outer component that extends from ~15 au to beyond the millimeter continuum edge. The outer component is further constrained by the line ratio to arise in a more elevated disk layer at larger radii. The inferred H2CO abundance structure agrees well with disk chemistry models, which predict efficient H2CO gas-phase formation close to the star, and cold H2CO grain surface formation, through H additions to condensed CO, followed by non-thermal desorption in the outer disk. The implied presence of active grain surface chemistry in the TW Hya disk is consistent with the recent detection of CH3OH emission, and suggests that more complex organic molecules are formed in disks, as well.