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Description
In cold (T<25K) and dense (n_H_>10^4^cm^-3^) interstellar clouds, molecules such as CO are significantly frozen onto dust grain surfaces. Deuterium fractionation is known to be very efficient in these conditions as CO limits the abundance of H_3_^+^, which is the starting point of deuterium chemistry. In particular, N_2_D^+^ is an excellent tracer of dense and cold gas in star- forming regions. We measure the deuterium fraction, RD, and the CO depletion factor, fd, towards a number of starless and protostellar cores in the L1688 region of the Ophiuchus molecular cloud and search for variations based upon environmental differences across L1688. The kinematic properties of the dense gas traced by the N_2_H^+^ and N_2_D^+^ (1-0) lines are also discussed. Deuterium fraction has been measured via observations of the J=1-0 transition of N2H+ and N2D+ towards 33 dense cores in different regions of L1688. We estimated the CO depletion factor using C^17^O(1-0) and 850 micron dust continuum emission from the SCUBA survey. We carried out all line observations with the IRAM 30 meter antenna.
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