Deuterated molecules as a probe of ionization fraction in dense interstellar clouds

Abstract

Deuterium fractionation in molecular ions, in particular HCO+, has been extensively used to estimate the degree of ionization in molecular clouds. This paper reviews recent work on ionization degree in homogeneous clouds. We will show that the N(DCO+)/N(HCO+) column density ratio furnishes a measurement of x(e) only in regions where CO is not significantly depleted, thus in the outer skirts of dense cloud cores. To probe x(e) deep inside the clouds, one has to gauge deuterium enhancement in molecular ions with parent species not affected by depletion (e.g. N2H+), and rely on chemical models which take into account the cloud density structure. Unlike N(DCO+)/N(HCO+), the N(N2D+)/N(N2H+) column density ratio is predicted to considerably increase with core evolution (and/or the amount of CO depletion), reaching large values (> 0.2) in cloud cores on the verge of forming a star.