FAUST I. The hot corino at the heart of the prototypical Class I protostar L1551 IRS5

Abstract

The study of hot corinos in Solar-like protostars has been so far mostly limited to the Class 0 phase, hampering our understanding of their origin and evolution. In addition, recent evidence suggests that planet formation starts already during Class I phase, which, therefore, represents a crucial step in the future planetary system chemical composition. Hence, the study of hot corinos in Class I protostars has become of paramount importance. Here we report the discovery of a hot corino towards the prototypical Class I protostar L1551 IRS5, obtained within the ALMA Large Program FAUST. We detected several lines from methanol and its isopotologues (\(^{13}\)CH\(_{\rm 3}\)OH and CH\(_{\rm 2}\)DOH), methyl formate and ethanol. Lines are bright toward the north component of the IRS5 binary system, and a possible second hot corino may be associated with the south component. The methanol lines non-LTE analysis constrains the gas temperature (\(\sim\)100 K), density (\(\geq\)1.5\(\times\)10\(^{8}\) cm\(^{-3}\)), and emitting size (\(\sim\)10 au in radius). All CH\(_{\rm 3}\)OH and \(^{13}\)CH\(_{\rm 3}\)OH lines are optically thick, preventing a reliable measure of the deuteration. The methyl formate and ethanol relative abundances are compatible with those measured in Class 0 hot corinos. Thus, based on the present work, little chemical evolution from Class 0 to I hot corinos occurs.