A SEARCH FOR HYDROXYLAMINE (NH$_{2}$OH) TOWARDS IRC+10216, ORION-S, ORION(KL), SGRB2(N), SGRB2(OH), W51M AND W3(IRS5)

Abstract

Over 50 molecular species containing nitrogen have been detected in the gas phase towards various astronomical environments. A number of chemical models have tried to reproduce the observed abundances of N-bearing species in the various environments of the ISM and CSM with limited success. Recently, there has been an interest in hydroxylamine (NH$_{2}$OH) because of its possible role in the formation of amino acids in space.\textbf{~339},~L7-L11}$^{,}$\textbf{~129},~9910-9917} Implications of amino acid formation in space and detections of possible precursor species would have a profound impact on our pursuit of understanding the prebiotic molecular origins of life. However, hydroxylamine has yet to be detected in the gas phase in the interstellar medium. A recent gas-grain model by Garrod et al. (2008)\textbf{~682},~283-302} suggests that NH$_{2}$OH is formed through radical recombination on grain surfaces and predicts an abundance ratio range of NH$_{2}$OH/H$_{2}$ between 1.2x10$^{-6}$ - 3.5x10$^{-7}$; thus, suggesting that NH$_{2}$OH should be within the detectable limits of existing radio receivers. Here we present the search for hydroxylamine towards seven different sources: IRC+10216, Orion-S, Orion(KL), SgrB2(N), SgrB2(OH), W51M, and W3(IRS5) at 2mm wavelengths using archival data from the NRAO 12m telescope.\textbf{~[astro-ph]}}$^{,}$ Hydroxylamine is not confirmed toward any region and upper limits to the total column density were determined for each source. The implications of these upper limits of NH$_{2}$OH to both the gas phase and grain surface models will also be discussed.