DNC/HNC and N2D+/N2H+ ratios in high-mass star forming cores
  Chemical models predict that the deuterated fraction (the column density
ratio between a molecule containing D and its counterpart containing H) of
N2H+, Dfrac(N2H+), is high in massive pre-protostellar cores and rapidly drops
of an order of magnitude after the protostar birth, while that of HNC,
Dfrac(HNC), remains constant for much longer. We tested these predictions by
deriving Dfrac(HNC) in 22 high-mass star forming cores divided in three
different evolutionary stages, from high-mass starless core candidates (HMSCs,
8) to high-mass protostellar objects (HMPOs, 7) to Ultracompact HII regions
(UCHIIs, 7). For all of them, Dfrac (N2H+) was already determined through
IRAM-30m Telescope observations, which confirmed the theoretical rapid decrease
of Dfrac(N2H+) after protostar birth (Fontani et al. 2011). Therefore our
comparative study is not affected by biases introduced by the source selection.
We have found average Dfrac(HNC) of 0.012, 0.009 and 0.008 in HMSCs, HMPOs and
UCHIIs, respectively, with no statistically significant differences among the
three evolutionary groups. These findings confirm the predictions of the
chemical models, and indicate that large values of Dfrac(N2H+) are more
suitable than large values of Dfrac(HNC) to identify cores on the verge of
forming high-mass stars, likewise what found in the low-mass regime.
