The abundance and excitation of the carbon chains in interstellar molecular clouds

Emission lines from the carbon chains HC3N, HC5N, HC7N and HC9N were observed at 3 mm, 7 mm, and 1.4 cm in a number of dark clouds, Orion A and IRC(plus)10216. Non-LTE models were constructed to describe excitation and column densities. Component models for the Taurus dark cloud TMC-1 suggested that relative molecular abundances do not vary substantially along the cloud ridge, whereas the H2 density does by a factor of three. Data available for other dark clouds showed that the decrease in abundance with length from one carbon chain to the next is nearly constant, being close to 2.3. The decline in carbon chain abundance with length is steeper in Orion KL than in dark clouds by a factor of approximately four. Abundance ratios derived for the carbon star IRC(plus)10216 are uncertain, due to difficulties in modeling excitation rates in this environment.