Statistical nuclear spin ratios of deuterated ammonia in the pre-stellar core L1544^★

¹ Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Gießenbachstraße 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
² Department of Physics, PO Box 64, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
³ Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany
⁴ Dipartimento di Chimica “Giacomo Ciamician”, Università di Bologna, via F. Selmi 2, 40126 Bologna, Italy
⁵ European Southern Observatory, Karl-Schwarzschild-Straße 2, 85748 Garching, Germany

^★★ Corresponding author.

Received: 29 April 2025
Accepted: 1 July 2025

Abstract

Context. The relative abundances of the nuclear spin modifications of molecules contain information on their formation mechanism.

Aims. We determined the ortho/para (o/p) ratios of NH₂D and NHD₂ in the archetypical pre-stellar core L1544.

Methods. L1544 was observed in the two lowest rotational lines of ortho- and para-NH₂D using the Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX) and the IRAM 30 m telescopes. The ground-state lines of ortho- and para-NHD₂ were observed with APEX. The distributions of chemical abundances in the core were predicted using a gas-grain chemistry model with two different scenarios concerning proton transfer reactions in the gas. One of the scenarios, the so-called full scrambling (FS), allows protons and deuterons to be completely mixed in the intermediate reaction complex before dissociation, whereas the other describes these reactions as proton or deuteron hops (PH). We also tested assumed abundance profiles independent of the chemistry models. Radiative transfer calculations were used to simulate the observed NH₂D and NHD₂ lines from the predicted and assumed abundance profiles.

Results. Our modelling efforts suggest that the ground-state lines of NH₂D and NHD₂ at the wavelength λ = 0.9 mm that are observable with the same beam and in the same spectrometer band are the most reliable probes of the o/p ratios. Simulations using the PH reaction scheme show systematically better agreement with the observations than simulations with the FS model. Simulations using a broken power law abundance profile as a function of the gas density, which seems to agree with previous observations and models, give spin ratios that are close to the predictions of the PH scenario: o/p-NH₂D = 2.85 ± 0.05, o/p-NHD₂ = 2.10 ± 0.06 (1 σ).

Conclusions. The o/p ratios predicted by the PH scenario in the gas phase correspond to the nuclear spin statistical weights, that is, o/p-NH₂D = 3, o/p-NHD₂ = 2. In view of the fact that H and D atom addition reactions on grain surfaces also result in these ratios, it is reasonable to assume that the spin ratios of interstellar ammonia and its deuterated forms are in general equal to their statistical values.