Deuterated species in the star-forming regions

Abstract

High deuteration levels in isolated prestellar cores can be explained by gas-phase or grain surface chemistry in dense, cold regions where abundant gas-phase species are frozen onto dust grains. We argue that an alternative machanism may operate in dense gas in the vicinity of embedded young stellar objects, where slow C-type shocks associated with molecular outflows may produce conditions favorable for deuterium fractionation.

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