A Significantly Low CO Abundance Toward the TW Hya Protoplanetary Disk: A Path to Active Carbon Chemistry?

In this Letter we report the CO abundance relative to H2 derived toward the circumstellar disk of the T-Tauri star TW Hya from the HD (1-0) and C18O (2-1) emission lines. The HD (1-0) line was observed by the Herschel Space Observatory Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer whereas C18O (2-1) observations were carried out with the Submillimeter Array at a spatial resolution of 2.8" x 1.9" (corresponding to 142 x 97 AU). In the disk’s warm molecular layer (T>20 K) we measure a disk-averaged gas-phase CO abundance relative to H2 of $\chi (\mathrm{C}\mathrm{O})=(0.1-3)x{10}^{-5}$, substantially lower than the canonical value of $\chi (\mathrm{C}\mathrm{O})={10}^{-4}$. We infer that the best explanation of this low $\chi$(CO) is the chemical destruction of CO followed by rapid formation of carbon chains, or perhaps CO2, that can subsequently freeze-out, resulting in the bulk mass of carbon locked up in ice grain mantles and oxygen in water. As a consequence of this likely time-dependent carbon sink mechanism, CO may be an unreliable tracer of H2 gas mass.