Search

Context. The abundances of deuterated molecules with respect to their main isotopologue counterparts have been determined to be orders of magnitude higher than expected from the cosmic abundance of deuterium relative to hydrogen. The increasing number of singly and multi-deuterated species detections helps us to constrain the interplay between gas-phase and solid-state chemistry and to understand better deuterium fractionation in the early stages of star formation. Acetaldehyde is one of the most abundant complex organic molecules (COMs) in star-forming regions and its singly deuterated isotopologues have already been observed towards protostars. Aims. A spectroscopic catalogue for astrophysical purposes is built for doubly deuterated acetaldehyde (CHD2CHO) from measurements in the laboratory. With this accurate catalogue, we aim to search for and detect this species in the interstellar medium and retrieve its column density and abundance. Methods. Sub-millimetre wave transitions were measured for the non-rigid doubly deuterated acetaldehyde CHD2CHO displaying hindered internal rotation of its asymmetrical CHD2 methyl group. An analysis of a dataset consisting of previously measured microwave transitions and of the newly measured ones was carried out with an effective Hamiltonian which accounts for the tunnelling of the asymmetrical methyl group. Results. A line position analysis was carried out, allowing us to reproduce 853 transition frequencies with a weighted root mean square standard deviation of 1.7, varying 40 spectroscopic constants. A spectroscopic catalogue for astrophysical purposes was built from the analysis results. Using this catalogue, we were able to detect, for the first time, CHD2CHO towards the low-mass proto-stellar system IRAS 16293-2422 utilising data from the ALMA Proto-stellar Interferometric Line Survey. Conclusions. The first detection of the CHD2CHO species allowed for the derivation of its column density with a value of 1.3×1015 cm−2 and an uncertainty of 10–20%. The resulting D2/D ratio of ~20% is found to be coincident with D2/D ratios derived for other COMs towards IRAS 16293-2422, pointing to a common formation environment with enhanced deuterium fractionation.

5 pags., 3 figs., 1 tab., In recent years we have seen an important increase in the number of protonated molecules detected in cold dense clouds. Here we report the detection in TMC-1 of HCCNCH+, the protonated form of HCCNC, which is a metastable isomer of HC3N. This is the first protonated form of a metastable isomer detected in a cold dense cloud. The detection was based on observations carried out with the Yebes 40m and IRAM 30m telescopes, which revealed four harmonically related lines. We derive a rotational constant B = 4664.431891 +/- 0.000692 MHz and a centrifugal distortion constant D = 519.14 +/- 4.14 Hz. From a high-level ab initio screening of potential carriers we confidently assign the series of lines to the ion HCCNCH+. We derive a column density of (3.0 +/- 0.5)e10 cm-2 for HCCNCH+, which results in a HCCNCH+/HCCNC abundance ratio of 0.010 +/- 0.002. This value is well reproduced by a state-of-the-art chemical model, which however is subject to important uncertainties regarding the chemistry of HCCNCH+. The observational and theoretical status of protonated molecules in cold dense clouds indicate that there exists a global trend in which protonated-to-neutral abundance ratios MH+/M increase with increasing proton affinity of the neutral M, although if one restricts to species M with high proton affinities (>700 kJ/mol), MH+/M ratios fall in the range 0.001-0.1, with no apparent correlation with proton affinity. We suggest various protonated molecules that are good candidates for detection in cold dense clouds in the near future., We acknowledge funding support from Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación through grants PID2019-106110GB-I00, PID2019-107115GB-C21, and PID2019-106235GB-I00 and from the European Research Council (ERC Grant 610256: NANOCOSMOS).

Solar-type protostars harbor highly deuterated complex organics. While this degree of deuteration may provide important clues in studying the formation of these species, spectroscopic information on multiply deuterated isotopologs is often insufficient. In particular, searches for triply deuterated methanol, CD$_3$OH, are hampered by the lack of intensity information from a spectroscopic model. The aim of the present study is to develop such a model of CD$_3$OH in low-lying torsional states that is sufficiently accurate to facilitate further searches for CD$_3$OH in space. We performed a new measurement campaign for CD$_3$OH involving three spectroscopic laboratories that covers the 34 GHz-1.1 THz and the 20-900 cm$^{-1}$ ranges. The analysis was performed using the torsion-rotation Hamiltonian model based on the rho-axis method. We determined a model that describes the ground and first excited torsional states of CD$_3$OH, up to quantum numbers $J \leqslant 55$ and $K_a \leqslant 23$, and we derived a line list for radio-astronomical observations. This list is accurate up to at least 1.1 THz and should be sufficient for all types of radio-astronomical searches for this methanol isotopolog. It was used to search for CD$_3$OH in data from the Protostellar Interferometric Line Survey of IRAS 16293-2422 using ALMA. CD$_3$OH is securely detected in the data, with a large number of clearly separated and well-reproduced lines. We detected lines belonging to the ground and the first excited torsional states. The derived abundance of CD$_3$OH relative to non-deuterated isotopolog confirm the significant enhancement of this multiply deuterated variant. This finding is in line with other observations of multiply deuterated complex organic molecules and may serve as an important constraint on their formation models., Comment: Astronomy and Astrophysics, in press. 21 pages, including figures, tables, and appendices; abstract shortened

We present the full data release for the Southern Parkes Large-Area Survey in Hydroxyl (SPLASH), a sensitive, unbiased single-dish survey of the Southern Galactic Plane in all four ground-state transitions of the OH radical at 1612, 1665, 1667, and 1720 MHz. The survey covers the inner Galactic Plane, Central Molecular Zone, and Galactic Centre over the range |b| < 2°, 332∘, JRD acknowledges the support of an Australian Research Council (ARC) DECRA Fellowship (project number DE170101086). HI is supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant no. JP21H00047. JFG acknowledges support from the State Agency for Research (AEI/10.13039/501100011033) of the Spanish MCIU, through grant no. PID2020-114461GB-I00 and the ‘Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa’ award for the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709). This research made use of the Duchamp source finder, produced at the ATNF, CSIRO, by M. Whiting. The Parkes radio telescope is part of the ATNF (grid.421683.a) which is funded by the Australian Government for operation as a National Facility managed by CSIRO. We acknowledge the Wiradjuri people as the traditional owners of the Observatory site.

Methanol, one of the simplest complex organic molecules in the Interstellar Medium (ISM), has been shown to be present and extended in cold environments such as starless cores. We aim at studying methanol emission across several starless cores and investigate the physical conditions at which methanol starts to be efficiently formed, as well as how the physical structure of the cores and their surrounding environment affect its distribution. Methanol and C$^{18}$O emission lines at 3 mm have been observed with the IRAM 30m telescope within the large program "Gas phase Elemental abundances in Molecular CloudS" (GEMS) towards 66 positions across 12 starless cores in the Taurus Molecular Cloud. A non-LTE radiative transfer code was used to compute the column densities in all positions. We then used state-of-the-art chemical models to reproduce our observations. We have computed N(CH$_3$OH)/N(C$^{18}$O) column density ratios for all the observed offsets, and two different behaviours can be recognised: the cores where the ratio peaks at the dust peak, and the cores where the ratio peaks with a slight offset with respect to the dust peak ($\sim $10000 AU). We suggest that the cause of this behaviour is the irradiation on the cores due to protostars nearby which accelerate energetic particles along their outflows. The chemical models, which do not take into account irradiation variations, can reproduce fairly well the overall observed column density of methanol, but cannot reproduce the two different radial profiles observed. We confirm the substantial effect of the environment onto the distribution of methanol in starless cores. We suggest that the clumpy medium generated by protostellar outflows might cause a more efficient penetration of the interstellar radiation field in the molecular cloud and have an impact on the distribution of methanol in starless cores., Accepted for publication in A&A

Most stars in the Galaxy, including the Sun, were born in high-mass star-forming regions. It is hence important to study the chemical processes in these regions to better understand the chemical heritage of both the Solar System and most stellar systems in the Galaxy. The molecular ion HCNH+ is thought to be a crucial species in ion-neutral astrochemical reactions, but so far it has been detected only in a handful of star-forming regions, and hence its chemistry is poorly known. We have observed with the IRAM-30m Telescope 26 high-mass star-forming cores in different evolutionary stages in the J=3-2 rotational transition of HCNH+. We report the detection of HCNH+ in 16 out of 26 targets. This represents the largest sample of sources detected in this molecular ion so far. The fractional abundances of HCNH+, [HCNH+], w.r.t. H2, are in the range 0.9 - 14 X $10^{-11}$, and the highest values are found towards cold starless cores. The abundance ratios [HCNH+]/[HCN] and [HCNH+]/[HCO+] are both < 0.01 for all objects except for four starless cores, for which they are well above this threshold. These sources have the lowest gas temperature in the sample. We run two chemical models, a "cold" one and a "warm" one, which attempt to match as much as possible the average physical properties of the cold(er) starless cores and of the warm(er) targets. The reactions occurring in the latter case are investigated in this work for the first time. Our predictions indicate that in the warm model HCNH+ is mainly produced by reactions with HCN and HCO+, while in the cold one the main progenitor species of HCNH+ are HCN+ and HNC+. The results indicate that the chemistry of HCNH+ is different in cold/early and warm/evolved cores, and the abundance ratios [HCNH+]/[HCN] and [HCNH+]/[HCO+] is a useful astrochemical tool to discriminate between different evolutionary phases in the process of star formation., 13 pages, 3 tables, 12 figures (+3 figures in appendix). Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

We report the detection of new 12.178, 12.229, 20.347, and 23.121 GHz methanol masers in the massive star-forming region G358.93-0.03, which are flaring on similarly short timescales (days) as the 6.668 GHz methanol masers also associated with this source. The brightest 12.178 GHz channel increased by a factor of over 700 in just 50 d. The masers found in the 12.229 and 20.347 GHz methanol transitions are the first ever reported and this is only the fourth object to exhibit associated 23.121 GHz methanol masers. The 12.178 GHz methanol maser emission appears to have a higher flux density than that of the 6.668 GHz emission, which is unusual. No associated near-infrared flare counterpart was found, suggesting that the energy source of the flare is deeply embedded., 9 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables, Published in MNRAS

Discovery of periodic maser emission was an unexpected result from monitoring observations of methanol transitions in high-mass young stellar objects. We report on the detection of five new periodic sources from a monitoring program with the Torun 32 m telescope. Variability with a period of 149 to 540 d and different patterns from sinusoidal-like to intermittent was displayed. Three-dimensional structure of G59.633−0.192 determined from the time delays of burst peaks of the spectral features and high angular resolution map implies that the emission traces a disc. For this source the 6.7 GHz light curve followed the infrared variability supporting a radiative scheme of pumping. An unusual time delay of ∼80 d occurred in G30.400−0.296 could not be explained by the light travel time and may suggest a strong differentiation of physical conditions and excitation in this deeply embedded source. Our observations suggest the intermittent variability may present a simple response of maser medium to the underlying variability induced by the accretion luminosity while other variability patterns may reflect more complex changes in the physical conditions.

6 pags., 4 figs., 1 tab., We report the detection of the oxygen-bearing complex organic molecules propenal (C2H3CHO), vinyl alcohol (C2H3OH), methyl formate (HCOOCH3), and dimethyl ether (CH3OCH3) toward the cyanopolyyne peak of the starless core TMC-1. These molecules were detected through several emission lines in a deep Q-band line survey of TMC-1 carried out with the Yebes 40m telescope. These observations reveal that the cyanopolyyne peak of TMC-1, which is a prototype of a cold dark cloud rich in carbon chains, also contains O-bearing complex organic molecules such as HCOOCH3 and CH3OCH3, which have previously been seen in a handful of cold interstellar clouds. In addition, this is the first secure detection of C2H3OH in space and the first time that C2H3CHO and C2H3OH have been detected in a cold environment, adding new pieces to the puzzle of complex organic molecules in cold sources. We derive column densities of (2.2 ± 0.3) × 1011 cm-2, (2.5 ± 0.5) × 1012 cm-2, (1.1 ± 0.2) × 1012 cm-2, and (2.5 ± 0.7) × 1012 cm-2 for C2H3CHO, C2H3OH, HCOOCH3, and CH3OCH3, respectively. Interestingly, C2H3OH has an abundance similar to that of its well-known isomer acetaldehyde (CH3CHO), with C2H3OH/CH3CHO ∼1 at the cyanopolyyne peak. We discuss potential formation routes to these molecules and recognize that further experimental, theoretical, and astronomical studies are needed to elucidate the true formation mechanism of these O-bearing complex organic molecules in cold interstellar sources., We acknowledge funding support from Spanish MICIU through grants AYA2016-75066-C2-1-P, PID2019-106110GB-I00, PID2019- 106235GB-I00, and PID2019-107115GB-C21 and from the European Research Council (ERC Grant 610256: NANOCOSMOS). M. A. also acknowledges funding support from the Ramón y Cajal programme of Spanish MICIU (grant RyC2014-16277).

7 pags., 2 figs., 7 tabs., We report the first detection in space of the two doubly deuterated isotopologues of methyl acetylene. The species CHD2CCH and CH2DCCD were identified in the dense core L483 through, respectively, nine and eight rotational lines in the 72-116 GHz range using the 30 m telescope of the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM). We combined the astronomical frequencies observed here with laboratory frequencies from the literature measured in the 29-47 GHz range to derive more accurate spectroscopic parameters for the two isotopologues. We derive beam-averaged column densities of (2.7 ± 0.5) × 1012 cm-2 for CHD2CCH and (2.2 ± 0.4) × 1012 cm-2 for CH2DCCD, which translate to abundance ratios of CH3CCH/CHD2CCH = 34 ± 10 and CH3CCH/CH2DCCD = 42 ± 13. The doubly deuterated isotopologues of methyl acetylene are only a few times less abundant than the singly deuterated ones, specifically around 2.4 times less abundant than CH3CCD. The abundances of the different deuterated isotopologues with respect to CH3CCH are reasonably accounted for by a gas-phase chemical model in which deuteration occurs from the precursor ions C3H6D+ and C3H5D+, when the ortho-to-para ratio of molecular hydrogen is sufficiently low. This points to gas-phase chemical reactions, rather than grain-surface processes, as being responsible for the formation and deuterium fractionation of CH3CCH in L483. The abundance ratios CH2DCCH/CH3CCD = 3.0 ± 0.9 and CHD2CCH/CH2DCCD = 1.25 ± 0.37 observed in L483 are consistent with the statistically expected values of three and one, respectively, with the slight overabundance of CHD2CCH compared to CH2DCCD being well explained by the chemical model., We acknowledge funding support from Spanish MICIU through grants AYA2016-75066-C2-1-P, PID2019-106110GB-I00, and PID2019-107115GB-C21 and from the European Research Council (ERC Grant 610256: NANOCOSMOS). M.A. also acknowledges funding support from the Ramón y Cajal programme of Spanish MICIU (grant RyC-2014-16277).

We present a study of emission lines of small hydrocarbons C2H and c-C3H2, and COMs precursors H2CO and CH3OH in order to better understand the possible chemical link between the molecular abundances and UV radiation field in photodissociation regions (PDRs). We study two PDRs around extended and compact H ii regions with G ≤ 50 Habings in the S235 star-forming complex. We find the highest abundances of both hydrocarbons on the edges of molecular clumps, while c-C3H2 is also abundant in the low-density expanding PDR around compact H ii region S235 A. We see the highest methanol column density towards the positions with the UV field G ≈ 20-30 Habings and explain them by reactive desorption from the dust grains. The $N_{\rm C_2H}/N_{\rm CH_3OH}$ ratio is lower by a factor of few or the order of magnitude in comparison with the Horsehead and Orion Bar PDRs. The ratio is similar to the value observed in hot corinos in the Perseus cloud. We conclude that ion-molecular and grain surface chemical routes rule the molecular abundances in the PDRs, and the PDRs inherit molecular abundances from the previous dark stage of molecular cloud evolution in spite of massive stars already emitting in optics. © 2021 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society. This study is supported by the Russian Science Foundation, grant number 18-12-00351. This research has made use of NASA's Astrophysics Data System Bibliographic Services; SIMBADdatabase, operated atCDS, Strasbourg, France (Wenger et al. 2000); Aladin web page (Bonnarel et al. 2000); ASTROPY, a community-developed core PYTHON package for Astronomy (Astropy Collaboration et al. 2013); APLPY, an open-source plotting package for PYTHON (http://aplpy.github.com Robitaille & Bressert 2012).

8 pags., 5 figs., 2 tabs., The abundances of chemical elements and their depletion factors are essential parameters for understanding the composition of the gas and dust that are ultimately incorporated into stars and planets. Sulfur is an abundant but peculiar element in the sense that, despite being less volatile than other elements (e.g., carbon), it is not a major constituent of dust grains in diffuse interstellar clouds. Here, we determine the gas-phase carbon-to-sulfur abundance ratio, [C]/[S], and the [S] in a dense star-forming cloud from new radio recombination lines (RRLs) detected with the Yebes 40m telescope-at relatively high frequencies (∼40 GHz ∼7 mm) and angular resolutions (down to 36″)-in the Orion Bar, a rim of the Orion Molecular Cloud (OMC). We detect nine Cnα RRLs (with n = 51-59) as well as nine narrow line features separated from the Cnα lines by δv =-8.4 ± 0.3 km s-1. Based on this velocity separation, we assign these features to sulfur RRLs, with little contribution of RRLs from the more condensable elements Mg, Si, or Fe. Sulfur RRLs lines trace the photodissociation region of the OMC. In these neutral gas layers, up to AV ∼4, the ions C+ and S+ lock in most of the C and S gas-phase reservoir. We determine a relative abundance of [C]Ori/[S]Ori = 10.4 ± 0.6 and, adopting the same [C]Ori measured in the translucent gas toward star θ1 Ori B, an absolute abundance of [S]Ori = (1.4 ± 0.4) 10-5. This value is consistent with emission models of the observed sulfur RRLs if N(S+) ∼7 1017 cm-2 (beam-averaged). The [S]Ori is the "initial"sulfur abundance in the OMC, before an undetermined fraction of the [S]Ori goes into molecules and ice mantles in the cloud interior. The inferred abundance [S]Ori matches the solar abundance, thus implying that there is little depletion of sulfur onto rocky dust grains, with D(S) = 0.0 ± 0.2 dex., We thank the Spanish MCIYU for funding support under grants PID2019-106110GB-I00 and AYA2016-75066-C2-1-P.

9 pags., 5 figs., 5 tabs., We report the first identification in space of H2NC, a high-energy isomer of H2CN that has been largely ignored in chemical and astrochemical studies. The observation of various unidentified lines around 72.2 GHz in the cold dark cloud L483 motivated the search and successful detection of additional groups of lines in harmonic relation. Following an exhaustive high-level ab initio screening of possible carriers, we confidently assign the unidentified lines to H2NC based on the good agreement between the astronomical and theoretical spectroscopic parameters alongside sound spectroscopic and astrochemical arguments. The observed frequencies are used to precisely characterize the rotational spectrum of H2NC. This species is also detected in the cold dark cloud B1-b and the z = 0.89 galaxy in front of the quasar PKS 1830-211. We derive H2NC/H2CN abundance ratios ∼1 in L483 and B1-b and 0.27 toward PKS 1830-211. Neither H2NC nor H2CN are detected in the dark cloud TMC-1, which seriously undermines the previous identification of H2CN in this source. We suggest that the H2NC/H2CN ratio behaves as the HNC/HCN ratio, with values close to one in cold dense clouds and below one in diffuse clouds. The reactions N + CH3 and C + NH3 emerge as strong candidates for the production of H2NC in interstellar clouds. Further studies on these two reactions are needed to evaluate the yield of H2NC. Due to the small number of atoms involved, it should be feasible to constrain the chemistry behind H2NC and H2CN, just as has been done for HNC and HCN, as this could allow for the H2NC/H2CN ratio to be applied as a probe of chemical or physical conditions of the host clouds., We acknowledge funding support from Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación through grants AYA2016-75066-C2-1-P, PID2019-106110GB-I00, and PID2019-107115GB-C21, and from the European Research Council (ERC Grant 610256: NANOCOSMOS). M.A. also acknowledges funding support from the Ramón y Cajal programme of Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (grant RyC-2014-16277).

6 pags., 2 figs., 2 tabs., We present the first identification in interstellar space of the propargyl radical (CH2CCH). This species was observed in the cold dark cloud TMC-1 using the Yebes 40 m telescope. The six strongest hyperfine components of the 20,2-10,1 rotational transition, lying at 37.46 GHz, were detected with signal-to-noise ratios from 4.6σ to 12.3σ. We derived a column density of 8.7 × 1013 cm-2 for CH2CCH, which translates to a fractional abundance relative to H2 of 8.7 × 10-9. This radical has a similar abundance as methyl acetylene, with an abundance ratio CH2CCH/CH3CCH close to one. The propargyl radical is thus one of the most abundant radicals detected in TMC-1, and it is probably the most abundant organic radical with a certain chemical complexity ever found in a cold dark cloud. We constructed a gas-phase chemical model and find calculated abundances that agree with, or fall two orders of magnitude below, the observed value depending on the poorly constrained low-temperature reactivity of CH2CCH with neutral atoms. According to the chemical model, the propargyl radical is essentially formed by the C + C2H4 reaction and by the dissociative recombination of C3$ \rm{H}n $ ions with n = 4-6. The propargyl radical is believed to control the synthesis of the first aromatic ring in combustion processes, and it probably plays a key role in the synthesis of large organic molecules and cyclization processes to benzene in cold dark clouds., We acknowledge funding support from Spanish MICIU through grants AYA2016-75066-C2-1-P, PID2019-106110GB-I00, and PID2019-107115GBC21 and from the European Research Council (ERC Grant 610256: NANOCOSMOS). M.A. also acknowledges funding support from the Ramón y Cajal programme of Spanish MICIU (grant RyC-2014-16277).

Recent surveys of the Galactic plane in the dust continuum and CO emission lines reveal that large ($\gtrsim 50$~pc) and massive ($\gtrsim 10^5$~$M_\odot$) filaments, know as giant molecular filaments (GMFs), may be linked to galactic dynamics and trace the mid-plane of the gravitational potential in the Milky Way. We have imaged one entire GMF located at $l\sim$52--54$^\circ$ longitude, GMF54 ($\sim$68~pc long), in the empirical dense gas tracers using the HCN(1--0), HNC(1--0), HCO$^+$(1--0) lines, and their $^{13}$C isotopologue transitions, as well as the N$_2$H$^+$(1--0) line. We study the dense gas distribution, the column density probability density functions (N-PDFs) and the line ratios within the GMF. The dense gas molecular transitions follow the extended structure of the filament with area filling factors between 0.06 and 0.28 with respect to $^{13}$CO(1--0). We constructed the N-PDFs of H$_2$ for each of the dense gas tracers based on their column densities and assumed uniform abundance. The N-PDFs of the dense gas tracers appear curved in log-log representation, and the HCO$^+$ N-PDF has the largest log-normal width and flattest power-law slope index. Studying the N-PDFs for sub-regions of GMF54, we found an evolutionary trend in the N-PDFs that high-mass star forming and Photon-Dominate Regions (PDRs) have flatter power-law indices. The integrated intensity ratios of the molecular lines in GMF54 are comparable to those in nearby galaxies. In particular, the N$_2$H$^+$/$^{13}$CO ratio, which traces the dense gas fraction, has similar values in GMF54 and all nearby galaxies except ULIRGs., Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, accepted by A&A

Periodic flares of maser emission are thought to be induced either by variations of the seed photon flux in young binary systems or the pump rate regulated by stellar and accretion luminosities. We seek to study the variability of four maser transitions of three different species in G107.298+5.639 to constrain the dominant mechanism of periodic flares. Light curves of the 6.7 GHz methanol and 22.2 GHz water vapour maser were obtained with the Torun 32m radio telescope over 39 and 34 cycles, respectively. The target was also monitored at the 1.6 GHz hydroxyl transitions with the Nan\c{c}ay radio telescope over 13 cycles. All these maser lines were imaged using VLBI arrays. The study confirms alternating flares of the methanol and water masers with a period of 34.4d and reveals the synchronised behaviour of the methanol and hydroxyl masers in this source. The observed spatial distribution of the methanol maser cloudlets and the measured time delays of the flares of individual features imply a ring-like structure of radius 240au and thickness 30au. Internal proper motions indicate that the velocity of methanol cloudlets is dominated by a disc-wind component of about 5km/s. The methanol emission detected during only one VLBI observation is located in a region about 550au from a central star, which also exhibits OH maser flares. The erratic appearance of methanol features can be related to a powering object of relatively low luminosity which, during some variability cycles, can excite molecules only in the nearest part of the disc. A careful analysis of the maser and infrared light curves reveal a strong correlation between the 6.7 GHz line and the infrared flux densities supporting a radiative pumping of the maser. The synchronised behaviour of the hydroxyl and methanol transitions indicates a common pumping mechanism for the periodic flares of G107.298+5.639., Comment: 20 pages, 15 figures

6 pags., 2 figs., 3 tabs., We report the detection of the propargyl radical (CH2CCH) in the cold dark cloud TMC-1 in the λ 3 mm wavelength band. We recently discovered this species in space toward the same source at a wavelength of λ 8 mm. In those observations, various hyperfine components of the 20,2-10,1 rotational transition, at 37.5 GHz, were detected using the Yebes 40 m telescope. Here, we used the IRAM 30 m telescope to detect ten hyperfine components of the 50,5-40,4 rotational transition, lying at 93.6 GHz. The observed frequencies differ by 0.2 MHz with respect to the predictions from available laboratory data. This difference is significant for a radio-Astronomical search for CH2CCH in interstellar sources with narrow lines. We thus included the measured frequencies in a new spectroscopic analysis to provide accurate frequency predictions for the interstellar search for propargyl at millimeter wavelengths. Moreover, we recommend that future searches for CH2CCH in cold interstellar clouds be carried out at λ 3 mm rather than at λ 8 mm. The 50,5-40,4 transition is about five times more intense than the 20,2-10,1 one in TMC-1, which implies that detecting the former requires about seven times less telescope time than detecting the latter. We constrain the rotational temperature of CH2CCH in TMC-1 to 9.9 ± 1.5 K, which indicates that the rotational levels of this species are thermalized at the gas kinetic temperature. The revised value of the column density of CH2CCH (including ortho and para species) is (1.0 ± 0.2) × 1014 cm-2, and thus the CH2CCH/CH3CCH abundance ratio is revised slightly higher, approaching one. This study opens the door to future detections of CH2CCH in other cold interstellar clouds, making it possible to further investigate the role of this very abundant hydrocarbon radical in the synthesis of large organic molecules, such as aromatic rings., We acknowledge funding support from Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación through grants PID2019-106110GB-I00, PID2019- 107115GB-C21, and PID2019-106235GB-I00 and from the European Research Council (ERC Grant 610256: NANOCOSMOS). M.A. also acknowledges funding support from the Ramón y Cajal programme of Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (grant RyC-2014-16277).

The RadioAstron space-VLBI mission has successfully detected extragalactic H2O MegaMaser emission regions at very long Earth to space baselines ranging between 1.4 and 26.7 Earth Diameters (ED). The preliminary results for two galaxies, NGC3079 and NGC4258, at baselines longer than one ED indicate masering environments and excitation conditions in these galaxies that are distinctly different. Further observations of NGC4258 at longer baselines will reveal more of the physics of individual emission regions., Comment: To be published in Astrophysical Masers: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe, IAU Symposium 336, 2017

To advance our understanding of the fuelling and feedback processes which power the Universe's most massive black holes, we require a significant increase in our knowledge of the molecular gas which exists in their immediate surroundings. However, the behaviour of this gas is poorly understood due to the difficulties associated with observing it directly. We report on a survey of 18 brightest cluster galaxies lying in cool cores, from which we detect molecular gas in the core regions of eight via carbon monoxide (CO), cyanide (CN) and silicon monoxide (SiO) absorption lines. These absorption lines are produced by cold molecular gas clouds which lie along the line of sight to the bright continuum sources at the galaxy centres. As such, they can be used to determine many properties of the molecular gas which may go on to fuel supermassive black hole accretion and AGN feedback mechanisms. The absorption regions detected have velocities ranging from -45 to 283 km s$^{-1}$ relative to the systemic velocity of the galaxy, and have a bias for motion towards the host supermassive black hole. We find that the CN N = 0 - 1 absorption lines are typically 10 times stronger than those of CO J = 0 - 1. This is due to the higher electric dipole moment of the CN molecule, which enhances its absorption strength. In terms of molecular number density CO remains the more prevalent molecule with a ratio of CO/CN $\sim 10$, similar to that of nearby galaxies. Comparison of CO, CN and HI observations for these systems shows many different combinations of these absorption lines being detected., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Context. Filaments are a key step on the path that leads from molecular clouds to star formation. However, their characteristics, for instance their width, are heavily debated and the exact processes that lead to their formation and fragmentation into dense cores still remain to be fully understood. Aims. We aim at characterising the mass, kinematics, and stability against gravitational collapse of a statistically significant sample of filaments in the Orion B molecular cloud, which is renown for its very low star formation efficiency. Methods. We characterised the gas column densities and kinematics over a field of 1.9 deg2 , using C18O (J = 1−0) data from the IRAM 30 m large programme ORION-B at angular and spectral resolutions of 23.5 00 and 49.5 kHz, respectively. Using two different Hessian-based filters, we extracted and compared two filamentary networks, each containing over 100 filaments. Results. Independent of the extraction method, the filament networks have consistent characteristics. The filaments have widths of ∼0.12 ± 0.04 pc and show a wide range of linear (∼1−100 M pc−1 ) and volume densities (∼2 × 103−2 × 105 cm−3 ). Compared to previous studies, the filament population is dominated by low-density, thermally sub-critical structures, suggesting that most of the identified filaments are not collapsing to form stars. In fact, only ∼1% of the Orion B cloud mass covered by our observations can be found in super-critical, star-forming filaments, explaining the low star formation efficiency of the region. The velocity profiles observed across the filaments show quiescence in the centre and coherency in the plane of the sky, even though these profiles are mostly supersonic. Conclusions. The filaments in Orion B apparently belong to a continuum which contains a few elements comparable to already studied star-forming filaments, for example in the IC 5146, Aquila or Taurus regions, as well as many lower density, gravitationally unbound structures. This comprehensive study of the Orion B filaments shows that the mass fraction in super-critical filaments is a key factor in determining star formation efficiency., 22 pags., 15 figs., 4 tabs., 2 apps., This research has made use of data from the Herschel Gould Belt Survey (HGBS) project (http://gouldbelt-herschel.cea.fr). The HGBS is a Herschel Key Programme jointly carried out by SPIRE Specialist Astronomy Group 3 (SAG 3), scientists of several institutes in the PACS Consortium (CEA Saclay, INAF-IFSI Rome and INAF-Arcetri, KU Leuven, MPIA Heidelberg), and scientists of the Herschel Science Center (HSC). This work was supported by the CNRS/CNES programme “Physique et Chimie du Milieu Interstellaire” (PCMI). We thank the CIAS for its hospitality during the three workshops devoted to this project. N.P. wishes to acknowledge support from STFC under grant number ST/N000706/1. P.G. thanks ERC starting grant (3DICE, grant agreement 336474) for funding during this work. J.R.G. thanks the Spanish MINECO for funding support under grant AYA2017-85111-P.

We present images of radio recombination lines (RRLs) at wavelengths around 17 cm from the star-forming region W49A to determine the kinematics of ionized gas in the THOR survey (The HI/OH/Recombination line survey of the inner Milky Way) at an angular resolution of 16.8"x13.8". The distribution of ionized gas appears to be affected by feedback processes from the star clusters in W49A. The velocity structure of the RRLs shows a complex behavior with respect to the molecular gas. We find a shell-like distribution of ionized gas as traced by RRL emission surrounding the central cluster of OB stars in W49A. We describe the evolution of the shell with the recent feedback model code WARPFIELD that includes the important physical processes and has previously been applied to the 30 Doradus region in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The cloud structure and dynamics of W49A are in agreement with a feedback-driven shell that is re-collapsing. The shell may have triggered star formation in other parts of W49A. We suggest that W49A is a potential candidate for star formation regulated by feedback-driven and re-collapsing shells., 17 pages, 9 figures. Published in A&A. Updated to match published version

We introduce the histogram of oriented gradients (HOG), a tool developed for machine vision that we propose as a new metric for the systematic characterization of observations of atomic and molecular gas and the study of molecular cloud formation models. In essence, the HOG technique takes as input extended spectral-line observations from two tracers and provides an estimate of their spatial correlation across velocity channels. We characterize HOG using synthetic observations of HI and $^{13}$CO(J=1-0) emission from numerical simulations of MHD turbulence leading to the formation of molecular gas after the collision of two atomic clouds. We find a significant spatial correlation between the two tracers in velocity channels where $v_{HI}\approx v_{^{13}CO}$, independent of the orientation of the collision with respect to the line of sight. We use HOG to investigate the spatial correlation of the HI, from the THOR survey, and the $^{13}$CO(J=1-0) emission, from the GRS, toward the portion of the Galactic plane 33.75$\lt l\lt$35.25$^{o}$ and $|b|\lt$1.25$^{o}$. We find a significant spatial correlation between the tracers in extended portions of the studied region. Although some of the regions with high spatial correlation are associated with HI self-absorption features, suggesting that it is produced by the cold atomic gas, the correlation is not exclusive to this kind of region. The HOG results also indicate significant differences between individual regions: some show spatial correlation in channels around $v_{HI}\approx v_{^{13}CO}$ while others present this correlation in velocity channels separated by a few km/s. We associate these velocity offsets to the effect of feedback and to the presence of physical conditions that are not included in the atomic-cloud-collision simulations, such as more general magnetic field configurations, shear, and global gas infall., Comment: 32 pages, 36 figures. Accepted for publication at A&A (28DEC2018)

We present the results of a monitoring campaign using the KAT-7 and HartRAO 26m telescopes, of hydroxyl, methanol and water vapour masers associated with the high-mass star forming region G9.62+0.20E. Periodic flaring of the main line hydroxyl masers were found, similar to that seen in the 6.7 and 12.2 GHz methanol masers. The 1667 MHz flares are characterized by a rapid decrease in flux density which is coincident with the start of the 12.2 GHz methanol maser flare. The decrease in the OH maser flux density is followed by a slow increase till a maximum is reached after which the maser decays to its pre-flare level. A possible interpretation of the rapid decrease in the maser flux density is presented. Considering the projected separation between the periodic methanol and OH masers, we conclude that the periodic 12.2 methanol masing region is located about 1600 AU deeper into the molecular envelope compared to the location of the periodic OH masers. A single water maser flare was also detected which seems not to be associated with the same event that gives rise to the periodic methanol and OH maser flares., 8 pages, 11 figures

We present the observation and analysis of newly discovered coherent structures in the L1688 region of Ophiuchus and the B18 region of Taurus. Using data from the Green Bank Ammonia Survey, we identify regions of high density and near-constant, almost-thermal velocity dispersion. We reveal 18 coherent structures are revealed, 12 in L1688 and 6 in B18, each of which shows a sharp “transition to coherence” in velocity dispersion around its periphery. The identification of these structures provides a chance to statistically study the coherent structures in molecular clouds. The identified coherent structures have a typical radius of 0.04 pc and a typical mass of 0.4 M ☉, generally smaller than previously known coherent cores identified by Goodman et al., Caselli et al., and Pineda et al. We call these structures “droplets.” We find that, unlike previously known coherent cores, these structures are not virially bound by self-gravity and are instead predominantly confined by ambient pressure. The droplets have density profiles shallower than a critical Bonnor–Ebert sphere, and they have a velocity (V LSR) distribution consistent with the dense gas motions traced by NH3 emission. These results point to a potential formation mechanism through pressure compression and turbulent processes in the dense gas. We present a comparison with a magnetohydrodynamic simulation of a star-forming region, and we speculate on the relationship of droplets with larger, gravitationally bound coherent cores, as well as on the role that droplets and other coherent structures play in the star formation process.

L1521E is a dense starless core in Taurus that was found to have relatively low molecular depletion by earlier studies, thus suggesting a recent formation. We aim to characterize the chemical structure of L1521E and compare it to the more evolved L1544 pre-stellar core. We have obtained $\sim$2.5$\times$2.5 arcminute maps toward L1521E using the IRAM-30m telescope in transitions of various species. We derived abundances for the species and compared them to those obtained toward L1544. We estimated CO depletion factors. Similarly to L1544, $c$-C$_3$H$_2$ and CH$_3$OH peak at different positions. Most species peak toward the $c$-C$_3$H$_2$ peak. The CO depletion factor derived toward the $Herschel$ dust peak is 4.3$\pm$1.6, which is about a factor of three lower than that toward L1544. The abundances of sulfur-bearing molecules are higher toward L1521E than toward L1544 by factors of $\sim$2-20. The abundance of methanol is similar toward the two cores. The higher abundances of sulfur-bearing species toward L1521E than toward L1544 suggest that significant sulfur depletion takes place during the dynamical evolution of dense cores, from the starless to pre-stellar stage. The CO depletion factor measured toward L1521E suggests that CO is more depleted than previously found. Similar CH$_3$OH abundances between L1521E and L1544 hint that methanol is forming at specific physical conditions in Taurus, characterized by densities of a few $\times$10$^4$ cm$^{-3}$ and $N$(H$_2$)$\gtrsim$10$^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$, when CO starts to catastrophically freeze-out, while water can still be significantly photodissociated, so that the surfaces of dust grains become rich in solid CO and CH$_3$OH, as already found toward L1544. Methanol can thus provide selective crucial information about the transition region between dense cores and the surrounding parent cloud., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A, abstract abridged

MSc (Astrophysical Sciences), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus One of the properties of high-mass star forming regions is that they are associated with masers. A small group of these star forming regions contain periodic methanol masers. A significant aspect of the periodic methanol masers are their variety of light curves. Two types of periodic maser light curves are well defined, namely, masers that have a light curve with a sharp rise in the maser flux density, reaching a peak, followed by a slow decay and masers that have a light curve of which the profile resembles an absolute cosine function. These differences in the light curve shapes could point to different mechanisms responsible for the periodic variability. This study uses sub-millimetre observations of these regions, associated with periodic methanol masers with different types of light curves, to search for differences or similarities in these regions. The Sub-Millimetre Array observations of G22.357+0.066 and G25.411+0.105 and the Atacama Large Millimetre/Sub- Millimetre Array observations of G9.62+0.20E reveal clear geometric differences between the sources. All three sources are associated with outflows. G22.357+ 0.066 and G9.62+0.19E have bipolar outflows almost in the plane of the sky and G25.411+0.105 has a bipolar outflow almost perpendicular to the plane of the sky. Since outflows are present in the sources it implies that they should also have disks, meaning that the disks of G22.357+0.066 and G9.62+0.19E would have similar orientations and the disk of G25.411+0.105 would have a different orientation. Thus, this suggests that the difference in the shape of the periodic methanol maser light curves might be a viewing angle effect. Masters

Cyanamide is one of the few interstellar molecules containing two chemically different N atoms. It was detected recently toward the solar-type protostar IRAS 16293-2422 B together with H$_2$N$^{13}$CN and HDNCN in the course of the Atacama Large Millemeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Protostellar Interferometric Line Survey (PILS). The detection of the 15N isotopomers or the determination of upper limits to their column densities was hampered by the lack of accurate laboratory data at the frequencies of the survey. We wanted to determine spectroscopic parameters of the $^{15}$N isotopomers of cyanamide that are accurate enough for predictions well into the submillimeter region and to search for them in the PILS data. We investigated the laboratory rotational spectra of H$_2^{15}$NCN and H$_2$NC$^{15}$N in the selected region between 192 and 507~GHz employing a cyanamide sample in natural isotopic composition. Additionally, we recorded transitions of H$_2$N$^{13}$CN. We obtained new or improved spectroscopic parameters for the three isotopic species. Neither of the $^{15}$N isotopomers of cyanamide were detected unambiguously in the PILS data. Two relatively clean lines can be tentatively assigned to H$_2^{15}$NCN. If confirmed, their column densities would imply a low $^{14}$N/$^{15}$N ratio for cyanamide toward this source. The resulting line lists should be accurate enough for observations up to about 1 THz. More sensitive observations, potentially at different frequencies, may eventually lead to the astronomical detection of these isotopic species., Astron. Astrophys., 8 pages; paper appeared; CDMS links corrected

The excited states of OH masers detected in the environment of high-mass young stellar objects (HMYSOs) are important for improving our understanding of the physical conditions of these objects and also provide information about their magnetic fields. We aim to search for excited-state OH 6035 MHz maser emission in HMYSOs which might have escaped detection in previous surveys or were never searched for. A sample of HMYSOs derived from untargeted surveys of the 6668 MHz methanol maser line was observed at 6035 MHz OH transition with the Torun 32 m radio telescope. The 6035 MHz detections were observed in the OH 6031 MHz line. Two-thirds of the detections were observed at least three times over a two-year period. Out of 445 targets, 37 were detected at 6035 MHz, including seven new discoveries. The 6031 MHz line was detected towards ten 6035 MHz sources, one of which was not previously reported. All the newly detected sources are faint with the peak flux density lower than 4 Jy and show significant or high variability on timescales of 4 to 20 months. Zeeman pair candidates identified in three new sources imply a magnetic field intensity of 2 to 11 mG. Comparison of our spectra with those obtained $\sim$10 yr ago indicates different degrees of variability but there is a general increase in the variability index on an $\sim$25 yr timescale, usually accompanied by significant changes in the profile shape., Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures

Context. Pre-stellar cores (PSCs) are units of star formation. Besides representing early stages of the dynamical evolution leading to the formation of stars and planets, PSCs also provide a substrate for incipient chemical complexity in the interstellar space. Aims. Our aim is to understand the influence of external conditions on the chemical composition of PSCs. For this purpose, we compared molecular column densities in two typical PSCs, L183 and L1544, which are embedded in different environments. Methods. A single-pointing survey of L183 at λ = 3 mm was conducted using the IRAM 30-m single-dish antenna. This led to the detection of more than 100 emission lines from 46 molecular species. The molecular column densities and excitation temperatures derived from these lines were compared to the corresponding parameters in L1544. The data for L1544 were obtained from literature or publicly available surveys, and they were analysed using the same procedure as adopted for L183. An astrochemical model, previously developed for the interpretation of organic molecule emissions towards the methanol peak of L1544, was used to interpret the combined data. Results. Our analysis reveals clear chemical differences between the two PSCs. While L1544 is richer in carbon-bearing species, in particular carbon chains, oxygen-containing species are generally more abundant in L183. The results are well-reproduced by our chemical model. Conclusions. The observed chemical differentiation between the two PSCs is caused by the different environmental conditions: the core of L183 is deeply buried in the surrounding cloud, whereas L1544 lies close to the edge of the Taurus Molecular Cloud. The obscuration of L183 from the interstellar radiation field (ISRF) allows the carbon atoms to be locked in carbon monoxide, which ultimately leads to a large abundance of O-bearing species. In contrast, L1544, being more affected by the ISRF, can keep a fraction of carbon in atomic form, which is needed for the production of carbon chains. © V. Lattanzi et al. 2020. Latvijas ZinÄ tnes Padome: lzp-2018/1-0170 for fruitful comments on the SO2 chemistry. Evelyne Roueff is also gratefully acknowledged for discussions on reaction rates of some complex organic molecules in our model. We also thank Elena Redaelli for providing the L1544 SPIRE density profile. The work by A.I.V. is supported by Latvian Council of Science via the Project lzp-2018/1-0170.

Context. The ketenyl radical HCCO has recently been detected in the interstellar medium (ISM) for the first time. Further astronomical detections of HCCO will help us understand its gas-grain chemistry, and subsequently revise the oxygen-bearing chemistry towards dark clouds. Moreover, its deuterated counterpart DCCO has never been observed in the ISM. A broad spectroscopic investigation is still lacking for both HCCO and DCCO, although they exhibit a significant astrophysical relevance. Aims. In this work we aim to measure the pure rotational spectra of the ground state of HCCO and DCCO in the millimeter and submillimeter region, considerably extending the frequency range covered by previous studies. Methods. The spectral acquisition was performed using a frequency-modulation absorption spectrometer between 170 and 650 GHz. The radicals were produced in a low-density plasma generated from a select mixture of gaseous precursors. We were able to detect and assign more than 100 rotational lines for each isotopolog. Results. The new lines have significantly enhanced the previous data set allowing the determination of highly precise rotational and centrifugal distortion parameters. In our analysis we took into account the interaction between the ground electronic state and a low-lying excited state (Renner-Teller pair) which enables the prediction and assignment of rotational transitions with K a up to 4. Conclusions. The present set of spectroscopic parameters provides highly accurate, millimeter, and submillimeter rest-frequencies of HCCO and DCCO for future astronomical observations. We also show that towards the pre-stellar core L1544, ketenyl peaks in the region where c-C 3 H 2 peaks, suggesting that HCCO follows a predominant hydrocarbon chemistry, as already proposed by recent gas-grain chemical models. © ESO 2019. European Regional Development Fund, FEDER: 1.1.1.1/16/A/213 Acknowledgements. We thank the anonymous referee for his/her comments which significantly improved the present manuscript. The work by Anton Vasyunin is partially supported by the ERDF project “Physical and chemical processes in the interstellar medium”, No.1.1.1.1/16/A/213.

We have measured the relationships between HI mass, stellar mass and star formation rate using the HI Parkes All Sky-Survey Catalogue (HICAT) and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). Of the 3,513 HICAT sources, we find 3.4 micron counterparts for 2,896 sources (80%) and provide new WISE matched aperture photometry for these galaxies. For our principal sample of spiral galaxies with W1 $\le$ 10 mag and z $\le$ 0.01, we identify HI detections for 93% of the sample. We measure lower HI-stellar mass relationships that HI selected samples that do not include spiral galaxies with little HI gas. Our observations of the spiral sample show that HI mass increases with stellar mass with a power-law index 0.35; however, this value is dependent on T-type, which affects both the median and the dispersion of HI mass. We also observe an upper limit on the HI gas fraction, which is consistent with a halo spin parameter model. We measure the star formation efficiency of spiral galaxies to be constant 10$^{-9.57}$ yr$^{-1}$ $\pm$ 0.4 dex for 2.5 orders of magnitude in stellar mass, despite the higher stellar mass spiral showing evidence of quenched star formation., 20 pages, 13 figures; accepted for publication by ApJ

5 pags., 3 figs., It is thought that dicyanopolyynes could potentially be abundant interstellar molecules; though, their lack of a dipole moment makes it impossible to detect them through radioastronomical techniques. Recently, the simplest member of this chemical family, cyanogen (NCCN), was indirectly probed for the first time in interstellar space through the detection of its protonated form toward the dense clouds L483 and TMC-1. Here we present a second set of firm evidence indicating the presence of NCCN in interstellar space, namely the detection of the metastable and polar isomer isocyanogen (CNCN). This species has been identified in L483 and tentatively in TMC-1 by observing various rotational transitions in the λ 3 mm band with the IRAM 30 m telescope. We derive beam-averaged column densities for CNCN of 1.6 ×10 cm in L483 and 9 ×10 cm in TMC-1, which imply fractional abundances relative to H in the range of (5-9) ×10. While the presence of NCCN in interstellar clouds seems undoubtable due to the detection of NCCNH and CNCN, putting tight constraints on its abundance is still hampered by the poor knowledge of the chemistry that links NCCN with NCCNH and especially with CNCN. We estimate that NCCN could be fairly abundant, in the range of 10-10 relative to H, such as other abundant nitriles like HCN and HCN., We acknowledge funding support from the European Research Council (ERC Grant 610256: NANOCOSMOS) and from Spanish MINECO through grant AYA2016-75066-C2-1-P. M.A. also acknowledges funding support from the Ramón y Cajal programme of Spanish MINECO (RyC-2014-16277).

We report the identification of an extreme proto-cluster of galaxies in the early Universe whose core (nicknamed Distant Red Core, DRC) is formed by at least ten dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs), confirmed to lie at $z_{\rm spec} = 4.002$ via detection of [CI](1-0), $^{12}$CO(6-5), $^{12}$CO(4-3), $^{12}$CO(2-1) and ${\rm H_2O} (2_{11} - 2_{02})$ emission lines, detected using ALMA and ATCA. The spectroscopically-confirmed components of the proto-cluster are distributed over a ${\rm 260\, kpc \times 310\, kpc}$ region and have a collective obscured star-formation rate (SFR) of $\sim 6500 \, M_\odot \, {\rm yr}^{-1}$, considerably higher than has been seen before in any proto-cluster of galaxies or over-densities of DSFGs at $z \gtrsim 4$. Most of the star formation is taking place in luminous DSFGs since no Ly$\alpha$ emitters are detected in the proto-cluster core, apart from a Ly$\alpha$ blob located next to one of the DRC dusty components and extending over $60\,{\rm kpc}$. The total obscured SFR of the proto-cluster could rise to ${\rm SFR} \sim 14,400 \, M_\odot \, {\rm yr}^{-1}$ if all the members of an over-density of bright DSFGs discovered around DRC in a wide-field LABOCA 870-$\mu$m image are part of the same structure. The total halo mass of DRC could be as high as $\sim 4.4 \times 10^{13}\,M_\odot$ and could be the progenitor of a Coma-like cluster at $z = 0$. The relatively short gas-depletion times of the DRC components suggest either the presence of a mechanism able to trigger extreme star formation simultaneously in galaxies spread over a few hundred kpc or the presence of gas flows from the cosmic web able to sustain star formation over several hundred million years., Comment: Submitted to ApJ. Minor updates added, including a change of the source name. Comments welcome

4 pags., 2 figs., 1 tab., We present the first identification in interstellar space of the thioformyl radical (HCS) and its metastable isomer HSC. These species were detected toward the molecular cloud L483 through observations carried out with the IRAM 30 m telescope in the λ3 mm band. We derive beam-averaged column densities of 7 × 10 cm for HCS and 1.8 × 10 cm for HSC, which translate into fractional abundances relative to H of 2 × 10 and 6 × 10, respectively. Although the amount of sulfur locked by these radicals is low, their detection allows placing interesting constraints on the chemistry of sulfur in dark clouds. Interestingly, the HCS/HCS abundance ratio is found to be quite low, ~1, in contrast with the oxygen analog case, in which the HCO/HCO abundance ratio is around 10 in dark clouds. Moreover, the radical HCS is found to be more abundant than its oxygen analog, HCO. The metastable species HOC, the oxygen analog of HSC, has not yet been observed in space. These observational constraints are compared with the outcome of a recent model of the chemistry of sulfur in dark clouds. The model underestimates the fractional abundance of HCS by at least one order of magnitude, overestimates the HCS/HCS abundance ratio, and does not provide an abundance prediction for the metastable isomer HSC. These observations should prompt a revision of the chemistry of sulfur in interstellar clouds., We acknowledge funding support from the European Research Council (ERC Grant 610256: NANOCOSMOS) and from Spanish MINECO through grant AYA2016-75066- C2-1-P. M.A. also acknowledges funding support from the Ramón y Cajal programme of Spanish MINECO (RyC-2014-16277).

PhD (Space Physics), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus The two brightest class II methanol masers - at 6.7- and 12.2-GHz, are exclusively associated with the early phases of high-mass star formation. This implies that studying these maser species is an indirect probe of the dynamics and physical properties of a specific epoch in high-mass star formation processes. Goedhart, Gaylard & van der Walt (2003) investigated the nature of variability in the 6.7- and 12.2-GHz methanol masers associated with G9.62+0.19E and found that they show periodic variations with a 246 day period. Since then, fourteen new methanol masers have been found to show periodic variability, which is a significantly small number compared to known methanol maser regions. The total known population of the 6.7-GHz methanol masers in our Galaxy is 1032 although the total Galactic population of these masers is expected to ∼ 1290 (Green et al., 2017). However, their periods have been found to range from 29.5 to 509 days. Some of the light curves of these sources show remarkable diversity. Also, the origin of the observed periodicity in the class II methanol masers is not yet confirmed, although some authors have proposed possible hypotheses to explain the periodicity in methanol masers. Considering some of the challenges above, in this thesis, we investigate maser variability in high-mass star-forming regions by searching for more periodic masers, conducting time-dependent numerical modelling of OH masers and investigate the stability of the determined periods. In the first part of our investigation, eighteen methanol masers from the 6.7-GHz MMB survey catalogues I, II, III, and IV were selected for a long-term monitoring programme using the 26m HartRAO radio telescope. Two of the eighteen methanol masers were found to be periodically variable in our monitoring window. These sources are - G358.460-0.391, at 6.7-GHz, and G339.986-0.425, at both 6.7- and 12.2-GHz. The periods were searched using the three standard methods - viz. the Lomb-Scargle, epoch-folding and Jurkevich, and fitting an appropriate analytical function using the Levenberg-Marquardt method. It was the latter method which gave the better estimate of periods and their corresponding uncertainties, which are 242 ± 1 and 221 ± 1 day for G339.986-0.425 and G358.460-0.391, respectively. The time series of G339.986- 0.425 show the strong correlations and time delays. The time delays in G339.986-0.425 across the channels show remarkable structure. However, they could not be correlated with the maser spot map from ATCA interferometric data due to their low spectroscopic and angular resolution. Using the samples from our investigation and Goedhart, Gaylard & van der Walt (2004), the probability of finding a periodic maser in a sample was estimated to be 0.13 ± 0.04. From this estimate, it was proposed that there may be 38 ± 15 periodic masers from the remaining 292 maser sources from the 6.7-GHz MMB catalogues I, II, III, IV and V. In our second investigation, seven periodic methanol masers from Goedhart, Gaylard & van der Walt (2003), Goedhart, Gaylard & van der Walt (2004), Goedhart et al. (2009) and Goedhart et al. (2013) were used to investigate evolution of the spectra, light curves and periods. These class II methanol masers were in a long-term monitoring programme for 17 yr, using the 26m HartRAO radio telescope. These sources are associated with G12.890+0.490, G338.93-0.06, G339.62-0.12, G328.24-0.55, G9.62+0.19E, G188.95+0.89 and G331.13-0.24, and their updated periods are 29.42 ± 0.08, 133 ± 1, 201 ± 2, 221 ± 5, 243 ± 3, 393 ± 11 and 506 ± 11 days, respectively. Over the 17 yr of monitoring these sources, some maser features did turn on and other faded away, meaning there was an evolution of the spectra. On the other hand, the light curves and periods did not show a significant evolution, and we argued that this ties into the stability of the driving mechanism of the observed periodicity and the light curve. In our third investigation, the statistical rate equations with line overlap are used to investigate a one-to-one correspondence of the OH masers variability with the time-dependent variability of dust temperature. The investigation is restricted to only 24 levels of OH. Also, only four dust temperature profiles were considered. It was noted that in some cases, it is possible for masers to follow the dust temperature variability, and in other cases, there was no one-to-one correspondence between dust temperature and maser variability. Therefore, it is concluded from this simple model with 24 eigenstates of OH, that one should be careful in simply assuming that the dust temperature variations will have a one-to-one correspondence with maser brightness variability. It was also noted that different maser transitions of the same molecule could respond differently to the same dust temperature variability. From this, it can be deduced that it is reasonable to argue that different maser species could also respond differently to the same dust temperature changes. Doctoral

Spectral line surveys reveal rich molecular reservoirs in G331.512-0.103, a compact radio source in the center of an energetic molecular outflow. In this first work, we analyse the physical conditions of the source by means of CH$_3$OH and CH$_3$CN. The observations were performed with the APEX telescope. Six different system configurations were defined to cover most of the band within (292-356) GHz; as a consequence we detected a forest of lines towards the central core. A total of 70 lines of $A/E$-CH$_3$OH and $A/E$-CH$_3$CN were analysed, including torsionally excited transitions of CH$_3$OH ($\nu_t$=1). In a search for all the isotopologues, we identified transitions of $^{13}$CH$_3$OH. The physical conditions were derived considering collisional and radiative processes. We found common temperatures for each $A$ and $E$ symmetry of CH$_3$OH and CH$_3$CN; the derived column densities indicate an $A/E$ equilibrated ratio for both tracers. The results reveal that CH$_3$CN and CH$_3$OH trace a hot and cold component with $T_k \sim$ 141 K and $T_k \sim$ 74 K, respectively. In agreement with previous ALMA observations, the models show that the emission region is compact ($\lesssim$ 5.5 arcsec) with gas density $n$(H$_2$)=(0.7-1) $\times$ 10$^7$ cm$^{-3}$. The CH$_3$OH/CH$_3$CN abundance ratio and the evidences for pre-biotic and complex organic molecules suggest a rich and active chemistry towards G331.512-0.103., Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, 7 tables. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

7 pags., 3 figs., 2 tabs., We report the detection in space of a new molecular species that has been characterized spectroscopically and fully identified from astrophysical data. The observations were carried out with the IRAM 30 m telescope. The molecule is ubiquitous as its J = → 2 1 transition has been found in cold molecular clouds, prestellar cores, and shocks. However, it is not found in the hot cores of Orion-KL and in the carbon-rich evolved star IRC+10216. Three rotational transitions in perfect harmonic relation J = 2 3 5 have been identified in the prestellar core B1b. The molecule has a 1S electronic ground state and its J = → 2 1 transition presents the hyperfine structure characteristic of a molecule containing a nucleus with spin 1. A careful analysis of possible carriers shows that the best candidate is NS+. The derived rotational constant agrees within 0.3%-0.7% with ab initio calculations. NS+ was also produced in the laboratory to unambiguously validate the astrophysical assignment. The observed rotational frequencies and determined molecular constants confirm the discovery of the nitrogen sulfide cation in space. The chemistry of NS+ and related nitrogen-bearing species has been analyzed by means of a time-dependent gas-phase model. The model reproduces well the observed NS/NS+ abundance ratio, in the range 30-50, and indicates that NS+ is formed by reactions of the neutral atoms N and S with the cations SH+ and NH+, respectively., We thank funding support from Spanish MINECO (grants AYA2012-32032, AYA2016-75066-C2-1-P, CSD2009-00038, and RyC-2014-16277) and from European Research Council (grant ERC-2013-SyG 610256, NANOCOSMOS). This work was also supported by the Programme National PCMI CEA and CNES, and the French National Research Agency (ANR-13-BS05-0008-02 “IMOLABS”).

Context. To date, several complex organic molecules have been detected in the interstellar medium, and they have been suggested as precursors of biologically important species. Propargylamine (HC ≡C−CH2−NH2) is structurally similar to a number of other organic molecules which have already been identified by radioastronomy, making it a good candidate for astrophysical detection. Aims. This work provides accurate rest frequencies of propargylamine, from the centimeter-wave to the submillimeter-wave region, useful to facilitate the detection of this molecule in the interstellar medium. Methods. An extensive laboratory study of the rotational spectrum of propargylamine has been performed using a pulsed-jet Fourier Transform Microwave (FTMW) spectrometer (7–19 GHz frequency range) and a frequency modulation microwave spectrometer (75–560 GHz). Several hundred rotational transitions of propargylamine were recorded in the ground and three lowest excited vibrational states. The experiments were supported by high-level ab initio computations, mainly employed to characterize the vibrational state structure and to predict spectroscopic parameters unknown prior to this study. Results. The measured transition frequencies yielded accurate rotational constants and the complete sets of quartic and sextic centrifugal distortion constants for propargylamine in its vibrational ground state. 14N-nuclear quadrupole coupling constants were also determined. Rotational and quartic centrifugal distortion constants were also obtained for the low-lying excited states v13 = 1 (A′), v20 = 1 (A″), and v21 = 1 (A″). The a-type Coriolis resonance which couples the v13 = 1 and v21 = 1 levels was analyzed. Conclusions. The determined spectroscopic constants allowed for the compilation of a dataset of highly accurate rest frequencies for astrophysical purposes in the millimeter and submillimeter regions with 1σ uncertainties that are smaller than 0.050 MHz, corresponding to 0.03 km s−1 at 500 GHz in radial equivalent velocity.

We use new ALMA observations to investigate the connection between dense gas fraction, star formation rate, and local environment across the inner region of four local galaxies showing a wide range of molecular gas depletion times. We map HCN (1-0), HCO$^+$ (1-0), CS (2-1), $^{13}$CO (1-0), and C$^{18}$O (1-0) across the inner few kpc of each target. We combine these data with short spacing information from the IRAM large program EMPIRE, archival CO maps, tracers of stellar structure and recent star formation, and recent HCN surveys by Bigiel et al. and Usero et al. We test the degree to which changes in the dense gas fraction drive changes in the SFR. $I_{HCN}/I_{CO}$ (tracing the dense gas fraction) correlates strongly with $I_{CO}$ (tracing molecular gas surface density), stellar surface density, and dynamical equilibrium pressure, $P_{DE}$. Therefore, $I_{HCN}/I_{CO}$ becomes very low and HCN becomes very faint at large galactocentric radii, where ratios as low as $I_{HCN}/I_{CO} \sim 0.01$ become common. The apparent ability of dense gas to form stars, $\Sigma_{SFR}/\Sigma_{dense}$ (where $\Sigma_{dense}$ is traced by the HCN intensity and the star formation rate is traced by a combination of H$\alpha$ and 24$\mu$m emission), also depends on environment. $\Sigma_{SFR}/\Sigma_{dense}$ decreases in regions of high gas surface density, high stellar surface density, and high $P_{DE}$. Statistically, these correlations between environment and both $\Sigma_{SFR}/\Sigma_{dense}$ and $I_{HCN}/I_{CO}$ are stronger than that between apparent dense gas fraction ($I_{HCN}/I_{CO}$) and the apparent molecular gas star formation efficiency $\Sigma_{SFR}/\Sigma_{mol}$. We show that these results are not specific to HCN., Comment: 31 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, email for access to data table before publication

Compact radio galaxies with a GHz-peaked spectrum (GPS) and/or compact-symmetric-object (CSO) morphology (GPS/CSOs) are increasingly detected in the X-ray domain. Their radio and X-ray emissions are affected by significant absorption. However, the locations of the X-ray and radio absorbers are still debated. We investigated the relationship between the column densities of the total ($N_{\mathrm{H}}$) and neutral ($N_{\mathrm{HI}}$) hydrogen to statistically constrain the picture. We compiled a sample of GPS/CSOs including both literature data and new radio data that we acquired with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope for sources whose X-ray emission was either established or under investigation. In this sample, we compared the X-ray and radio hydrogen column densities, and found that $N_{\mathrm{H}}$ and $N_{\mathrm{HI}}$ display a significant positive correlation, with $N_{\mathrm{HI}} \propto N_{\mathrm{H}}^b$, where $b=0.47$ and $b=0.35$, depending on the subsample. The $N_{\mathrm{H}}$ - $N_{\mathrm{HI}}$ correlation suggests that the X-ray and radio absorbers are either co-spatial or different components of a continuous structure. The correlation displays a large intrinsic spread that we suggest to originate from fluctuations, around a mean value, of the ratio between the spin temperature and the covering factor of the radio absorber, $T_{\rm s}/C_{\rm f}$., Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, 6 tables; final version: a few typos corrected, minor style changes

[Context] The nearby massive star-forming region Orion KL is one of the richest molecular reservoirs known in our Galaxy. The region hosts newly formed protostars, and the strong interaction between their radiation and their outflows with the environment results in a series of complex chemical processes leading to a high diversity of interstellar tracers. The region is therefore one of the most frequently observed sources, and the site where many molecular species have been discovered for the first time., [Aims] Current availability of wideband backends permits us to efficiently perform spectral surveys in the entire mm-range. We aim to study the almost unexplored 7 mm window in Orion KL to obtain an unbiased chemical picture of the region., [Methods] In this paper we present a sensitive spectral survey of Orion KL, made with one of the 34 m antennas of the Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex in Robledo de Chavela, Spain. The spectral range surveyed is from 41.5 to 50 GHz, with a frequency spacing of 180 kHz (equivalent to 1.2 km s, depending on the exact frequency). The rms achieved ranges from 8 to 12 mK., [Results] The spectrum is dominated by the J = 1 → 0 SiO maser lines and by radio recombination lines (RRLs), which were detected up to Δn = 11. Above a 3σ level, we identified 66 RRLs and 161 molecular lines corresponding to 39 isotopologues from 20 molecules; a total of 18 lines remain unidentified, two of them above a 5σ level. Results of radiative modelling of the detected molecular lines (excluding masers) are presented. Conclusions. At this frequency range, this is the most sensitive survey and also the one with the largest bandwidth. Although some complex molecules like CHCHCN and CHCHCN arise from the hot core, most of the detected molecules originate from the low temperature components in Orion KL., This work is supported by MICINN (Spain) grants CSD2009-00038, and AYA2012-32032. J.R.R. acknowledges the support from project ESP2015-65597-C4-1-R (MINECO/FEDER). B.T. and J.C. also thank MINECO grants CTQ 2013-40717 P and CTQ 2010-19008, and the ERC for synergy grant ERC-2013-Syg-610256-NANOCOSMOS.

We report results of 6.7 GHz methanol maser monitoring of 139 star-forming sites with theTorun 32 m radio telescope from June 2009 to February 2013. The targets were observedat least once a month, with higher cadences of 2-4 measurements per week for circumpolarobjects. Nearly 80 per cent of the sources display variability greater than 10 per cent on atime-scale between a week and a few years but about three quarters of the sample have only1-3 spectral features which vary significantly. Irregular intensity fluctuation is the dominanttype of variability and only nine objects show evidence for cyclic variations with periodsof 120 to 416 d. Synchronised and anti-correlated variations of maser features are detectedin four sources with a disc-like morphology. Rapid and high amplitude bursts of individualfeatures are seen on 3-5 occasions in five sources. Long (>50 d to 20 months) lasting burstsare observed mostly for individual or groups of features in 19 sources and only one sourceexperienced a remarkable global flare. A few flaring features display a strong anti-correlationbetween intensity and line-width that is expected for unsaturated amplification. There is aweak anti-correlation between the maser feature luminosity and variability measure, i.e. maserfeatures with low luminosity tend to be more variable than those with high luminosity. Theanalysis of the spectral energy distribution and continuum radio emission reveals that thevariability of the maser features increases when the bolometric luminosity and Lyman fluxof the exciting object decreases. Our results support the concept of a major role for infraredpumping photons in triggering outburst activity of maser emission.

Minor mergers are important processes contributing significantly to how galaxies evolve across the age of the Universe. Their impact on supermassive black hole growth and star formation is profound. The detailed study of dense molecular gas in galaxies provides an important test of the validity of the relation between star formation rate and HCN luminosity on different galactic scales. We use observations of HCN, HCO+1-0 and CO3-2 to study the dense gas properties in the Medusa merger. We calculate the brightness temperature ratios and use them in conjunction with a non-LTE radiative line transfer model. The HCN and HCO+1-0, and CO3-2 emission do not occupy the same structures as the less dense gas associated with the lower-J CO emission. The only emission from dense gas is detected in a 200pc region within the "Eye of the Medusa". No HCN or HCO+ is detected for the extended starburst. The CO3-2/2-1 brightness temperature ratio inside "the Eye" is ~2.5 - the highest ratio found so far. The line ratios reveal an extreme, fragmented molecular cloud population inside "the Eye" with large temperatures (>300K) and high gas densities (>10^4 cm^-3). "The Eye" is found at an interface between a large-scale minor axis inflow and the Medusa central region. The extreme conditions inside "the Eye" may be the result of the radiative and mechanical feedback from a deeply embedded, young, massive super star cluster, formed due to the gas pile-up at the intersection. Alternatively, shocks from the inflowing gas may be strong enough to shock and fragment the gas. For both scenarios, however, it appears that the HCN and HCO+ dense gas tracers are not probing star formation, but instead a post-starburst and/or shocked ISM that is too hot and fragmented to form new stars. Thus, caution is advised in linking the detection of emission from dense gas tracers to evidence of ongoing or imminent star formation., 10 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in A&A

The interstellar delivery of carbon atoms locked into molecules might be one of the key ingredients for the emergence of life. Cyanopolyynes are carbon chains delimited at their two extremities by an atom of hydrogen and a cyano group, meaning that they could be excellent reservoirs of carbon. The simplest member, HC3N, is ubiquitous in the galactic interstellar medium and found also in external galaxies. Thus, understanding the growth of cyanopolyynes in regions forming stars similar to our Sun, and what affects them, is particularly relevant. In the framework of the IRAM/NOEMA Large Program SOLIS (Seeds Of Life In Space), we have obtained a map of two cyanopolyynes, HC3N and HC5N, in the protocluster OMC-2 FIR4. Because our Sun is thought to be born in a rich cluster, OMC-2 FIR4 is one of the closest and best known representatives of the environment in which the Sun may have been born. We find a HC3N/HC5N abundance ratio across the source in the range 1..30, with the smallest values (≤10) in FIR5 and in the eastern region of FIR4. The ratios ≤10 can be reproduced by chemical models only if: (1) the cosmic-ray ionisation rate is ∼4× 10-14 s-1; (2) the gaseous elemental ratio C/O is close to unity; and (3) oxygen and carbon are largely depleted. The large is comparable to that measured in FIR4 by previous works and was interpreted as due to a flux of energetic (≥10 MeV) particles from embedded sources. We suggest that these sources could lie east of FIR4 and FIR5. A temperature gradient across FIR4, with T decreasing from east to west by about 10 K, could also explain the observed change in the HC3N/HC5N line ratio, without the need of a cosmic ray ionisation rate gradient. However, even in this case, a high constant cosmic-ray ionisation rate (of the order of 10s s-1) is necessary to reproduce the observations. © ESO 2017. European Research Council, ERC: PALs 320620 Centre National dâ Etudes Spatiales, CNES ANR10LABX56 Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, ICAT Conseil National de la Recherche Scientifique, CNRS-L ★ Based on observations carried out under project number L15AA with the IRAM NOEMA Interferometer. IRAM is supported by INSU/CNRS (France), MPG (Germany) and IGN (Spain). ★★ The final IRAM data used in the paper (FITS format) are available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/605/A57 Acknowledgements. We thank the IRAM staff for their help in the data reduction. Many thanks to the anonymous referee for his/her constructive comments. This work was supported by the French program Physique et Chimie du Milieu In-terstellaire (PCMI) funded by the Conseil National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), and by a grant from LabeX Osug@2020 (Investissements d’avenir – ANR10LABX56). Partial salary support for A. Pon was provided by a Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics (CITA) National Fellowship. P.C., A. Punanova, A.C., and J.E.P. acknowledge support from the European Research Council (project PALs 320620). C.F. acknowledges founding from French space agency CNES.

[Context] The nature of turbulence in molecular clouds is one of the key parameters that control star formation efficiency: compressive motions, as opposed to solenoidal motions, can trigger the collapse of cores, or mark the expansion of Hii regions., [Aims] We try to observationally derive the fractions of momentum density (ρv) contained in the solenoidal and compressive modes of turbulence in the Orion B molecular cloud and relate these fractions to the star formation efficiency in the cloud., [Methods] The implementation of a statistical method applied to a CO(J = 1-0) datacube obtained with the IRAM-30 m telescope, enables us to retrieve 3-dimensional quantities from the projected quantities provided by the observations, which yields an estimate of the compressive versus solenoidal ratio in various regions of the cloud., [Results] Despite the Orion B molecular cloud being highly supersonic (mean Mach number ~ 6), the fractions of motion in each mode diverge significantly from equipartition. The cloud's motions are, on average, mostly solenoidal (excess > 8% with respect to equipartition), which is consistent with its low star formation rate. On the other hand, the motions around the main star forming regions (NGC 2023 and NGC 2024) prove to be strongly compressive., [Conclusions] We have successfully applied to observational data a method that has so far only been tested on simulations, and we have shown that there can be a strong intra-cloud variability of the compressive and solenoidal fractions, these fractions being in turn related to the star formation efficiency. This opens a new possibility for star formation diagnostics in galactic molecular clouds., This work was supported by the CNRS/CNES program Physique et Chimie du Milieu Interstellaire (PCMI). V.V.G. thanks for support from the Chilean Government through the Becas Chile program. P.G.’s postdoctoral position was funded by the INSU/CNRS. P.G. thanks ERC starting grant (3DICE, grant agreement 336474) for funding during this work. NRAO is operated by Associated Universities Inc. under contract with the National Science Foundation.

The dependence of the proton-to-electron mass ratio, mu, on the local matter density was investigated using methanol emission in the dense dark cloud core L1498. Towards two different positions in L1498, five methanol transitions were detected and an extra line was tentatively detected at a lower confidence level in one of the positions. The observed centroid frequencies were then compared with their rest frame frequencies derived from least-squares fitting to a large data set. Systematic effects, as the underlying methanol hyperfine structure and the Doppler tracking of the telescope, were investigated and their effects were included in the total error budget. The comparison between the observations and the rest frame frequencies constrains potential mu variation at the level of Dmu/mu < 6 x 10^(-8), at a 3 sigma confidence level. For the dark cloud we determine a total CH3OH (A+E) beam averaged column density of 3-4 x 10^(12) cm(-2) (within roughly a factor of two), an E- to A-type methanol column density ratio of N(A-CH3OH)/N(E-CH3OH) = 1.00 +/- 0.15, a density of n(H2) = 3 x 10^5 cm^(-3) (again within a factor of two), and a kinetic temperature of Tkin = 6 +/- 1 K. In a kinetic model including the line intensities observed for the methanol lines, the n(H2) density is higher and the temperature is lower than that derived in previous studies based on different molecular species; the intensity of the 1_0 --> 1_-1 E line strength is not well reproduced., 10 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

53 pags., 8 figs., 3 tabs., An exhaustive chemical characterization of dense cores is mandatory to our understanding of chemical composition changes from a starless to a protostellar stage. However, only a few sources have had their molecular composition characterized in detail. Here we present a ¿ 3 mm line survey of L483, a dense core around a Class 0 protostar, which was observed with the IRAM 30 m telescope in the 80-116 GHz frequency range. We detected 71 molecules (140 including different isotopologs), most of which are present in the cold and quiescent ambient cloud according to their narrow lines (FWHM 0.5 km s-1) and low rotational temperatures (¿10 K). Of particular interest among the detected molecules are the cis isomer of HCOOH, the complex organic molecules HCOOCH3, CH3OCH3, and C2H5OH, a wide variety of carbon chains, nitrogen oxides like N2O, and saturated molecules like CH3SH, in addition to eight new interstellar molecules (HCCO, HCS, HSC, NCCNH+, CNCN, NCO, H2NCO+, and NS+) whose detection has already been reported. In general, fractional molecular abundances in L483 are systematically lower than in TMC-1 (especially for carbon chains), tend to be higher than in L1544 and B1-b, and are similar to those in L1527. Apart from the overabundance of carbon chains in TMC-1, we find that L483 does not have a marked chemical differentiation with respect to starless/prestellar cores like TMC-1 and L1544, although it does chemically differentiate from Class 0 hot corino sources like IRAS 16293-2422. This fact suggests that the chemical composition of the ambient cloud of some Class 0 sources could be largely inherited from the dark cloud starless/prestellar phase. We explore the use of potential chemical evolutionary indicators, such as the HNCO/C3S, SO2/C2S, and CH3SH/C2S ratios, to trace the prestellar/protostellar transition. We also derived isotopic ratios for a variety of molecules, many of which show isotopic ratios close to the values for the local interstellar medium (remarkably all those involving 34S and 33S), while there are also several isotopic anomalies like an extreme depletion in 13C for one of the two isotopologs of c-C3H2, a drastic enrichment in 18O for SO and HNCO (SO being also largely enriched in 17O), and different abundances for the two 13C substituted species of C2H and the two 15N substituted species of N2H+. We report the first detection in space of some minor isotopologs like c-C3D. The exhaustive chemical characterization of L483 presented here, together with similar studies of other prestellar and protostellar sources, should allow us to identify the main factors that regulate the chemical composition of cores along the process of formation of low-mass protostars. A copy of the reduced spectrum (FITS file) is available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/625/A147Based on observations carried out with the IRAM 30 m Telescope. IRAM is supported by INSU/CNRS (France), MPG (Germany) and IGN (Spain)., M.A., N.M., and J.C. acknowledge funding support from the European Research Council (ERC Grant 610256: NANOCOSMOS) and from Spanish MICINN through grant AYA2016-75066-C2-1-P. M.A. also thanks funding support from the Ramón y Cajal programme of Spanish MICINN (RyC-2014-16277). M.T. acknowledges support from Spanish MICINN under grant AYA2016-79006-P. E.R. acknowledges the support of the Programme National >Physique et Chimie du Milieu Interstellaire> (PCMI) of CNRS/INSU with INC/INP co-funded by CEA and CNES.

The Milky Way, when viewed in the neutral hydrogen line emission, presents large structures called Galactic supershells (GSs). The origin of these structures is still a subject of debate. The most common scenario invoked is the combined action of strong winds from massive stars and their subsequent explosion as supernova. The aim of this work is to determine the origin of 490 GSs that belong to the Catalog of HI supershell candidates in the outer part of the Galaxy. To know the physical processes that took place to create these expanding structures, it is necessary to determine their kinetic energies. To obtain all the GS masses, we developed and used an automatic algorithm, which was tested on 95 GSs whose masses were also estimated by hand. The estimated kinetic energies of the GSs vary from $1\times10^{47}$ to $3.4\times10^{51}$ erg. Considering an efficiency of 20% for the conversion of mechanical stellar wind energy into the kinetic energy of the GSs, the estimated values of the GS energies could be reached by stellar OB associations. For the GSs located at high Galactic latitudes, the possible mechanism for their creation could be attributed to collision with high velocity clouds (HVC). We have also analysed the distribution of GSs in the Galaxy, showing that at low Galactic latitudes, $|b, Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics

Methyl mercaptan (also known as methanethiol), CH3SH, has been found in the warm and dense parts of high -- as well as low -- mass star-forming regions. The aim of the present study is to obtain accurate spectroscopic parameters of the S-deuterated methyl mercaptan CH$_3$SD to facilitate astronomical observations by radio telescope arrays at (sub)millimeter wavelengths. We have measured the rotational spectrum associated with the large-amplitude internal rotation of the methyl group of methyl mercaptan using an isotopically enriched sample in the 150-510 GHz frequency range using the K\"oln millimeter wave spectrometer. The analysis of the spectra has been performed up to the second excited torsional state. We present modeling results of these data with the RAM36 program. CH$_3$SD was searched for, but not detected, in data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Protostellar Interferometric Line Survey (PILS) of the deeply embedded protostar IRAS 16293-2422. The derived upper limit corresponds to a degree of deuteration of at most ~18%., Comment: Astron. Astrophys., 8 pages; article appeared; CDMS links updated

We study the correlation between far-infared/submm dust emission and atomic gas column density in order to derive the properties of the high Galactic latitude, low density, Milky Way cirrus in the foreground of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. Dust emission maps from 60 to 850 um are obtained from SPIRE observations carried out within the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey, complemented by IRAS-IRIS and Planck-HFI maps. Data from the Arecibo legacy Fast ALFA Survey is used to derive atomic gas column densities for two broad velocity components, low and intermediate velocity clouds. Dust emissivities are derived for each gas component and each far-infared/submm band. For the low velocity clouds, we measure an average emissivity 0.79 +/- 0.08 times 1E-20 MJy sr^-1 cm^2 at 250 um. After fitting a modified blackbody to the available bands, we estimated a dust absorption cross-section 0.49 +/- 0.13 times 1E-25 cm^2 H^-1 at 250 um (with dust temperature T = 20.4 +/- 1.5 K and spectral index beta = 1.53 +/- 0.17). The results are in excellent agreement with those obtained by Planck over a much larger coverage of the high Galactic latitude cirrus (50% of the sky vs 0.2% in our work). For dust associated with intermediate velocity gas, we confirm earlier Planck results and find a higher temperature and lower emissivity and cross-section. After subtracting the modelled components, we find regions at scales smaller than 20' where the residuals deviate significantly from the average, cosmic-infrared-background dominated, scatter. These large residuals are most likely due to local variations in the cirrus dust properties (and/or the dust/atomic-gas correlation) or to high-latitude molecular clouds with average N_H2, Comment: 25 pages, 19 figures, A&A accepted