High-angular resolution HC_3N and CS observations of the dense core in the cirrus cloud MCLD123.5+24.9

Abstract

We report on high-angular resolution observations of a dense core in the cirrus cloud MCLD123.5+24.9 obtained with the PdB and the OVRO interferometers. Our maps show substructures down to the scale of the beam (~ 1000 AU). The chosen molecules CS(2-1) and HC_3N(10-9) trace different regions in the core. This can be explained by time-dependent chemical evolution of the cloud and therefore provides constraints on the timescales of the fragmentation and core formation processes. Our data demonstrate that the chemical evolution plays the decisive role in our attempt to interpret observational data of different gas density tracers.