Inventories of Rich Carbon-Chain Chemistry in Prestellar and Starless Cores in the Perseus Molecular Cloud

[astro-ph.GA] Carbon-chain molecules serve as an important reservoir of reactive organic matter that will eventually be incorporated into protoplanetary disks, planets, and cometary material. Prestellar and starless cores are composed of cold (~ 10 K) and dense (~ 105 cm−3) clumps of gas and dust within molecular clouds, and are nurseries for low-mass stars and planetary systems.

Surveys of starless cores have focused on the study of complex organic molecules, COMs, whereas observations of carbon-chains in starless cores are limited. We analyze the carbon-chain inventories of 15 prestellar and starless cores in the Perseus Molecular Cloud.

Using Yebes 40m single-dish observations, we detect CS, CCS, CCCS, HC₃N, DC₃N, and HC₅N in at least 10/15 cores and HC₇N in 4/15 cores. Our study also finds related isotopologues, where ¹³CS, C³⁴S, C¹³CS, CC³⁴S, H¹³CCCN, HC¹³CCN, HCC¹³CN, HC¹³CCCCN, HCC¹³CCCN, HCCC¹³CCN, HCCCCC¹⁵N, and DCCCCCN are detected.

We report detection statistics, compare column density ratios with Taurus, Serpens, and protostar sources, examine DC₃N/HC₃N deuterium fractionation, and investigate the relative abundances and correlations between cyanopolyyne (HCnN) and sulfur-bearing (CnS) carbon-chains.

The diverse suite of species detected reveals the richness of carbon-chain chemistry in Perseus and illustrates how local environmental conditions, such as density, temperature, and proximity to protostellar activity, shape each core’s molecular inventory and relative evolutionary phase.

Our findings provide a glimpse into the carbon-chain reservoir of starless and prestellar cores in the Perseus, which may ultimately be inherited by emerging protoplanetary disks and later integrated into planetary systems and biologically relevant material.

Anissa Pokorny-Yadav (1 and 2), Samantha Scibelli (2), Judit Ferrer Asensio (3), Yancy Shirley (4), Andrés Megías (5), Izaskun Jiménez-Serra (5) ((1) Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, (2) National Radio Astronomy Observatory, (3) RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research, (4) Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, (5) Centro de Astrobiología)

Comments: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 21-page main text (with 12 figures) and 19-page appendix (with 2 figures) for a total of 40 pages
Subjects: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA); Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP); Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
Cite as: arXiv:2608.05264 [astro-ph.GA] (or arXiv:2608.05264v1 [astro-ph.GA] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.05264
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Submission history
From: Anissa Pokorny-Yadav
[v1] Wed, 5 Aug 2026 17:40:50 UTC (2,418 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.05264

Astrobiology, Astronomy, Astrochemistry,