A&A 531, A121 (2011) Astronomy DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201016079 & c ESO 2011 Astrophysics CH abundance gradient in TMC-1 A. Suutarinen1,W.D.Geppert2, J. Harju1,3, A. Heikkilä4, S. Hotzel3,5,M.Juvela1,3, T. J. Millar6, C. Walsh6, and J. G. A. Wouterloot7 1 Department of Physics, PO Box 64, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland e-mail:
[email protected] 2 Department of Physics, AlbaNova, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden 3 Observatory, University of Helsinki, Finland 4 Onsala Space Observatory, 43992 Onsala, Sweden 5 GRS mbH, 50667 Cologne, Germany 6 Astrophysics Research Centre, School of Mathematics and Physics, Queen’s University Belfast, University Road, Belfast, BT7 1NN, UK 7 Joint Astronomy Centre, Hilo, 96720, USA Received 5 November 2010 / Accepted 14 May 2011 ABSTRACT Aims. The aim of this study is to examine if the well-known chemical gradient in TMC-1 is reflected in the amount of rudimentary forms of carbon available in the gas-phase. As a tracer we use the CH radical which is supposed to be well correlated with carbon atoms and simple hydrocarbon ions. Methods. We observed the 9-cm Λ-doubling lines of CH along the dense filament of TMC-1. The CH column densities were compared with the total H2 column densities derived using the 2MASS NIR data and previously published SCUBA maps and with OH column densities derived using previous observations with Effelsberg. We also modelled the chemical evolution of TMC-1 adopting physical conditions typical of dark clouds using the UMIST Database for Astrochemistry gas-phase reaction network to aid the interpretation of the observed OH/CH abundance ratios.