2023A&A...678A.137C

Context. Complex organic molecules (COMs), especially the oxygen-bearing species, have been observed to be abundant in the gas phase toward low-mass and high-mass protostars. Deep line surveys have been carried out only for a limited number of well-known star-forming regions using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), which has unprecedented resolution and sensitivity, and statistical studies on oxygen-bearing COMs (O-COMs) in a large sample of high-mass protostars using ALMA are still lacking.
Aims. We aim to determine the column density ratios of six O-COMs with respect to methanol (CH₃OH) in a sample of 14 high-mass protostellar sources in order to investigate their origin through ice and/or gas-phase chemistry. The selected species are: acetalde-hyde (CH₃CHO), ethanol (C₂H₅OH), dimethyl ether (DME; CH₃OCH₃), methyl formate (MF; CH₃OCHO), glycolaldehyde (GA; CH₂OHCHO), and ethylene glycol (EG; (CH₂OH)₂).
Methods. We fit the spectra of 14 high-mass sources observed as part of the Complex Chemistry in hot Cores with ALMA (CoCCoA) survey and derived the column densities and excitation temperatures of the six selected O-COMs. We used the minor isotopologue of methanol CH₃¹⁸OH to infer the column density of the main isotopologue CH₃OH, of which the lines are generally optically thick. We compared our O-COM ratios with those of five low-mass protostars studied with ALMA from the available literature as well as with the results from experiments and simulations.
Results. Although the CoCCoA sources have different morphologies and brightness in their continuum and methanol emission, the O-COM ratios with respect to methanol have very similar values in the high-mass and low-mass samples. The DME and MF have the highest and most constant ratios within one order of magnitude, while the other four species have lower ratios and exhibit larger scatter by one to two orders of magnitude. The ratio between DME and MF is close to one, which agrees well with previous observational findings. Current simulations and experiments can reproduce most observational trends with a few exceptions. For example, they tend to overestimate the abundance of ethanol and GA with respect to methanol.
Conclusions. The constant column density ratios of the selected O-COMs among the low- and high-mass sources suggest that these species are formed in similar environments during star formation, probably on icy dust grains in the pre-stellar stages. Where deviations are found, hypotheses exist to explain the differences between observations, simulations, and experiments, such as the involvement of gas-phase chemistry and different emitting areas of molecules.