Discovery of a New Mechanism to Release Complex Molecules from Icy Grain Mantles around Young Stellar Objects

Complex organic molecules (COMs) are increasingly observed in the environs of young stellar objects (YSOs), including hot cores/corinos around high-mass/low-mass protostars and protoplanetary disks. It is widely believed that COMs are first formed in the ice mantle of dust grains and subsequently released to the gas by thermal sublimation at high temperatures (T>100 K) in strong stellar radiation fields. In this paper, we report a new mechanism that can desorb COMs from icy grain mantles at low temperatures (T<100K), which is termed rotational desorption. The rotational desorption process of COMs comprises two stages: (1) ice mantles on suprathermally rotating grains spun-up by radiative torques (RATs) are first disrupted into small fragments by centrifugal stress, and (2) COMs and water ice then evaporate rapidly from the tiny fragments (i.e., radius a <1nm) due to thermal spikes or enhanced thermal sublimation due to increased grain temperature for larger fragments (a>1 nm). We discuss the implications of rotational desorption for releasing COMs and water ice in the inner region of protostellar envelopes (hot cores and corinos), photodissociation regions, and protoplanetary disks (PPDs). In shocked regions of stellar outflows, we find that nanoparticles can be spun-up to suprathermal rotation due to supersonic drift of neutral gas, such that centrifugal force can be sufficient to directly eject some molecules from the grain surface, provided that nanoparticles are made of strong material. Finally, we find that large aggregates (a~ 1-100 micron) exposed to strong stellar radiations can be disrupted into individual icy grains via RAdiative Torque Disruption (RATD) mechanism, which is followed by rotational desorption of ice mantles and evaporation of COMs. In the RATD picture, we expect some correlation between the enhancement of COMs and the depletion of large dust grains in not very dense regions of YSOs.