JWST observations of segregated $^{12}$CO$_2$ and $^{13}$CO$_2$ ices in protostellar envelopes

N. G. C. Brunken; A. C. A. Boogert; E. F. van Dishoeck; N. J. Evans; C. A. Poteet; K. Slavicinska; L. Tychoniec; P. Nazari; L. W. Looney; H. Tyagi; M. Narang; P. Klaassen; Y. Yang; P. J. Kavanagh; S. T. Megeath; M. E. Ressler

arXiv · 2505.14769

JWST observations of segregated $^{12}$CO$_2$ and $^{13}$CO$_2$ ices in protostellar envelopes

N. G. C. Brunken·A. C. A. Boogert·E. F. van Dishoeck·N. J. Evans·C. A. Poteet·K. Slavicinska·L. Tychoniec·P. Nazari·L. W. Looney·H. Tyagi·M. Narang·P. Klaassen·Y. Yang·P. J. Kavanagh·S. T. Megeath·M. E. Ressler

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Abstract

The evolution of interstellar ices can be studied with thermal tracers such as the vibrational modes of CO$_2$ ice that show great diversity depending on their local chemical and thermal environment. In this work we present JWST observations of the 15.2 $μ$m bending mode, the 4.39 $μ$m stretching mode and the 2.70 $μ$m combination mode of $^{12}$CO$_2$ and $^{13}$CO$_2$ ice in the high-mass protostar IRAS 20126 and the low-mass protostar Per-emb 35. The 15.2 $μ$m bending mode of both protostars shows the characteristic double peak profile that is associated with pure CO$_2$ ice and a sharp short-wavelength peak is observed at 4.38 $μ$m in the $^{13}$CO$_2$ bands of the two sources. Furthermore, a narrow short-wavelength feature is detected at 2.69 $μ$m in the $^{12}$CO$_2$ combination mode of Per-emb 35. We perform a consistent profile decomposition on all three vibrational modes and show that the profiles of all three bands can be reproduced with the same linear combination of CO$_2$ ice in mixtures with mostly CH$_3$OH and H$_2$O ices when the ices undergo segregation due to heating. The findings show that upon heating, CO$_2$ ice is likely segregating from mostly the water-rich ice layer and the CO$_2$-CH$_3$OH component becomes dominant in all three vibrational modes. Additionally, we find that the contribution of the different CO$_2$ components to the total absorption band is similar for both $^{12}$CO$_2$ and $^{13}$CO$_2$. This indicates that fractionation processes must not play a significant role during the different formation epochs, H$_2$O-dominated and CO-dominated. We quantify the $^{12}$CO$_2$ and $^{13}$CO$_2$ ice column densities and derive $^{12}$C/$^{13}$C$_{ice}$ = 90 $\pm$ 9 in IRAS 20126. Finally, we report the detection of the $^{13}$CO$_2$ bending mode of pure CO$_2$ ice at 15.64 $μ$m in both IRAS 20126 and Per-emb 35.

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N. G. C. Brunken, A. C. A. Boogert, E. F. van Dishoeck, N. J. Evans, C. A. Poteet, K. Slavicinska, L. Tychoniec, P. Nazari, L. W. Looney, H. Tyagi, M. Narang, P. Klaassen, Y. Yang, P. J. Kavanagh, S. T. Megeath, M. E. Ressler. 2025-05-20. JWST observations of segregated $^{12}$CO$_2$ and $^{13}$CO$_2$ ices in protostellar envelopes. https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.14769

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