Future perspectives with cm observations: SKA and ngVLA

Future perspectives with cm observations: SKA and ngVLA Izaskun Jimenez-Serra (CSIC) Center of Astrobiology (Spain) Towards new Frontiers: the Astrochemical Journey from Young Stellar Nurseries to Exoplanets - ESO – 13 Mar 2025 Outline: •Why cm wavelengths? •Specs of the SKA and ngVLA •Key science with the SKA and ngVLA Outline: •Why cm wavelengths? •Specs of the SKA and ngVLA •New science with the SKA and ngVLA (1) Dust emission is optically thin and less affected by scattering Why cm wavelengths? Carrasco-González+2019 HL Tau (1) Dust emission is optically thin and less affected by scattering Why cm wavelengths? HL Tau See also Zhu+2019 Carrasco-González+2019 (1) Dust emission is optically thin and less affected by scattering Why cm wavelengths? HL Tau See also Zhu+2019 Carrasco-González+2019 (1) Dust emission is optically thin and less affected by scattering Why cm wavelengths? Zhu+2019 A large fraction of the disk mass remains hidden at mm 𝛌’s (2) Molecular line emission unaffected by dust optical depth Why cm wavelengths? de Simone+2017 NGC1333 IRAS4A IRAM PdB @1.4mm CH3OH with VLA @25 GHz Molecular emission screened by large dust opacity at mm 𝛌’s Outline: •Why cm wavelengths? •Specs of the SKA and ngVLA •New science with the SKA and ngVLA Figures of merit of SKA-MID: AA4 𝛔c=2.4 𝜇Jy/beam, @12 GHz in 1hr with 𝛥𝜈=3.6 GHz, 𝜃beam=34 mas 𝛔L=560 𝜇Jy/beam, @12 GHz in 1hr with 𝛥v=10km/s, 𝜃beam=34 mas Figures of merit of ngVLA: 𝛔c=0.24 𝜇Jy/beam, @16 GHz in 1hr with 𝛥𝜈=3.6 GHz, 𝜃beam=0.43 mas 𝛔L=20 𝜇Jy/beam, @16 GHz in 1hr with 𝛥v=10km/s, 𝜃beam=0.43 mas Outline: •Why cm wavelengths? •Specs of the SKA and ngVLA •New science with the SKA and ngVLA Key science at cm wavelengths 1) How do rocky planets form? 2) How did life originate? 3) What are exoplanets like? Key science at cm wavelengths 1) How do rocky planets form? How Do Rocky Planets Form? Tychoniec+2020 Galametz+2019 Challenge: How do we probe grain growth beyond the dust centimeter-size barrier? •Formation of rocky cores of planets via grain growth and dust settling How Do Rocky Planets Form? Testi et al. 2014 Hoare et al. 2015 SKA and ngVLA cover the right λ’s to probe cm-sized grains Characterizing the multiple protostellar system VLA 1623-2417 Radley+2025 Class 0 YSOs (e.g. Murillo+2013,2018 Sadavoy+2019,2024) Class I YSOs (Mercimek+2023 Michel+2022 Sadavoy+2019,2024) Radley+2025 Some of the highest angular resolution images obtained with the VLA Q, K and X-bands A configuration 𝜃beam=0.06”-0.4” Radley+2025 Some of the highest angular resolution images obtained with the VLA Q, K and X-bands A configuration 𝜃beam=0.06”-0.4” Grain growth with amax>1mm amax unconstrained due to the poor VLA’s 𝜃beam at low 𝜈’s significant contribution of ionized gas at 𝜈<15 GHz Primordial RNA-world chemical scheme (Powner+2009; Patel+2015) Toward the RNA-world in the ISM RNA Precursors Sugars & Lipid precursors Amino Acids Pyrimidine ribonucleotides (building blocks of RNA) Toward the RNA world in the ISM (Jiménez-Serra+2020, Astrobiology, 20,1048J) Pyrimidine ribonucleotides Toward the RNA world in the ISM Pyrimidine ribonucleotides Zeng et al. (2019) (Jiménez-Serra+2020, Astrobiology, 20,1048J) G0693-0.027 G+0.693-0.027 Quiescent cloud (no signs of star-formation) undergoing a cloud-cloud collision (Hasegawa+94;Sato+00; Tsuboi+15; Wu+17; Zeng+20; Armijos-Abendaño+20) ❑n(H2)~4x104 cm-3 ❑Tdust<20 K vs. Tgas>100 K ❑Low Tex of the molecular gas (<15 K). ❑Huge advantage for COM searches in “crowded” spectral surveys G+0.693 vs. Sgr B2 (N2) Jimenez-Serra, Codella, Belloche 2025 (Chapter on “Observations of COMs” for Handbook of Astrochemistry) G+0.693 is richer in unsaturated and S-bearing species High CRIR enhances ion and atomic abundance (see Santamaría et al. 2021; Rivilla+2022; Sanz-Novo+2024; Rey-Montejo+ in prep.) the Onset of Prebiotic chEmistry iN Space 38 A) What prebiotic molecules form in the ISM? B) What molecules are inherited from the parental molecular core? C) What is the origin of the chemical complexity in the ISM? PI: I. Jiménez-Serra What can the SKA and ngVLA do for us? SKA and ngVLA as detectors of prebiotic COMs: 1) cm ’s are “cleaner” (less line confusion and line blending) 2) interferometry “naturally” reduces linewidths Extended COM-rich GMC (G+0.693) Bright HII region (L source) Jimenez-Serra et al. (2022) See also Schoedel et al. (2024) – SKA Galactic Center Survey Feasibility study for C3 and C4 sugars with SKA Prebiotic Molecules with SKA Glyceraldehyde detected within a few tens of hours with SKA Band 5a/5b in its AA* configuration SKA and ngVLA provide a bright future!! Words of caution: •Continuum emission: combination of dust thermal, free-free and synchrotron contributions -> they need to be disentangled (RRLs, tool for estimating free-free emission from ionized gas) •Expect high variability (Coutens et al. 2019) -> multi-epoch observations are a must •For line emission, non-LTE effects may be present (Faure et al. 2014,2018) -> this shows the need for molecular collisional coefficients (especially for COMs) AEI (PID2022-136814NB-I00) ILINK CSIC (project # 23017) THANK YOU!!