Analysis of the isotopologues of CS, CCS, CCCS, HCS⁺, HCCS⁺, and H₂CS in TMC-1 with the QUIJOTE line survey

We performed a detailed analysis of the isotopologues with 13 C, 34 S, 33 S, and 36 S of the sulphur-bearing molecules CS, CCS, CCCS, HCS + , HCCS + , and H 2 CS towards the starless core TMC-1 using the QUIJOTE 1 line survey. The observations were obtained with the Yebes 40 m radio telescope, and the sensitivity of the data varied between 0.08 and 0.2 mK in the 31–50 GHz range. Observations with the IRAM 30 m radio telescope of the most abundant isotopologues of these species are also presented and used to estimate volume densities and to constrain the excitation conditions of these molecules. Among these species, we report the first detection in space of C 13 C 34 S, CC 33 S, CCC 33 S, HC 33 S + , and HCC 34 S + . C 36 S is also detected for the first time in a cold starless object. These data were complemented with sensitive maps that provide the spatial distribution of most of these species. Using the available collisional rate coefficients for each species, we modeled the observed line intensities using the large velocity gradient method for the radiative transfer. The results allowed us to report the most complete analysis of the column densities of the C n S family and to compare the abundance ratios of all detected isotopologues. Adopting a kinetic temperature for TMC-1 of 9 K, we found that n(H 2 )=0.9–1.5×10 4 cm −3 can explain the observed decline in intensity with increasing rotational levels J for all observed molecules. We derived the rotational constants for the C 13 C 34 S, CC 33 S, CCC 33 S, HC 33 S + , and HCC 34 S + isotopologues from new laboratory data and complemented them with the frequencies of the observed lines. We find that all sulphur isotopologues are consistent with solar isotopic abundance ratios. Accurate 12 C/ 13 C abundances were derived and, as previously suggested, the 13 C isotopologues of CCS and CCCS show strong abundance anomalies depending on the position of the substituted carbon. Nevertheless, the 12 C/ 13 C abundance ratio is practically identical to the solar value for CS, HCS + , and H 2 CS. We also searched for the isotopologues of other S-bearing molecules in the 31–50 GHz domain (HCS, HSC, NCS, H 2 CCS, HCSCN, HCCCS + , C 4 S, and C 5 S). The expected intensities for their 34 S and 13 C isotopologues are too low to be detected with the present sensitivity of the QUIJOTE line survey, however. The results presented in this work provide new insights into the molecular composition, isotopic abundances, and physical conditions of the cold starless core TMC-1.