Pamela Freeman, IRyA
Host: Ramandeep Gill
Observing chemical diversity in star-forming regions: from
single-dish to next-generation interferometric telescopes
The dynamic evolution of star formation leads to the
production of a diverse suite of molecules, whose emission reveals great
detail about the physical and chemical conditions in which these species
form. My collaborators and I use wide-band spectral surveys and mapped
observations from the Green Bank Telescope and the IRAM 30-m Telescope
to study the large-scale structure within the star-forming regions
DR21(OH) and IRAS 20126. We use a multi-component local thermodynamic
equilibrium model, CASSIS LTE Python, and a gas-grain chemical model,
Nautilus, to determine the environment and formation routes producing
this observed emission. With single-dish resolution, the spatial scale
we recover links a star-forming core to its parent cloud.
Next-generation telescopes, such as the next-generation Very Large
Array, will provide high resolution and highly sensitive spectral line
surveys of these regions. To prepare for this, we are simulating
observations of star-forming regions with the Analytical Protostellar
Environment code. We will investigate which physical and environmental
factors determine the formation of large organic molecules, and what
chemical diversity we can expect to observe with the ngVLA in
star-forming systems.