Observations of nitrogen isotope fractionation in deeply embedded
  protostars
  (Abridged) The terrestrial planets, comets, and meteorites are significantly
enriched in 15N compared to the Sun and Jupiter. While the solar and jovian
nitrogen isotope ratio is believed to represent the composition of the
protosolar nebula, a still unidentified process has caused 15N-enrichment in
the solids. Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain the variations,
including chemical fractionation. However, observational results that constrain
the fractionation models are scarce. While there is evidence of 15N-enrichment
in prestellar cores, it is unclear how the signature evolves into the
protostellar phases. Our aim is to measure the 14N/15N ratio around three
nearby, embedded low-to-intermediate-mass protostars. Isotopologues of HCN and
HNC were used to probe the 14N/15N ratio. A selection of H13CN, HC15N, HN13C,
and H15NC transitions was observed with the APEX telescope. The 14N/15N ratios
were derived from the integrated intensities assuming a standard 12C/13C ratio.
The assumption of optically thin emission was verified using radiative transfer
modeling and hyperfine structure fitting. Two sources, IRAS 16293A and R CrA
IRS7B, show 15N-enrichment by a factor of around 1.5-2.5 in both HCN and HNC
with respect to the solar composition. Solar composition cannot be excluded for
the third source, OMC-3 MMS6. Furthermore, there are indications of a trend
toward increasing 14N/15N ratios with increasing outer envelope temperature.
The enhanced 15N abundances in HCN and HNC found in two Class~0 sources
(14N/15N of 160-290) and the tentative trend toward a temperature-dependent
14N/15N ratio are consistent with the chemical fractionation scenario, but
14N/15N ratios from additional tracers are indispensable for testing the
models. Spatially resolved observations are needed to distinguish between
chemical fractionation and isotope-selective photochemistry.
