Complex Organic Molecules in Protostars with ALMA Spectral Surveys (COMPASS): I. Overview of the ALMA Large Program

@misc{jorgensen2026complex,
  title = {{Complex Organic Molecules in Protostars with ALMA Spectral Surveys (COMPASS): I. Overview of the ALMA Large Program}},
  author = {J. K. Jørgensen and A. Coutens and M. N. Drozdovskaya and J. -E. Lee and A. L. Plunkett and S. Maret and A. Belloche and D. Harsono and Z. Telkamp and F. Cruz-Sáenz de Miera and M. L. R. van 't Hoff and Á Kóspál and M. Rao and J. Bergner and J. -H. Jeong and S. Spezzano and B. A. McGuire and P. Nazari and Y. -L. Yang and H. -S. Yun and A. Andreu and J. Ferrer Asensio and C. -H. Kim and N. F. W. Ligterink and Y. Lin and S. -Y. Liu and M. Lützen and P. Marchand and C. Xue and S. Zeng},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.07864},
  eprint = {2610.07864},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.07864},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Complex Organic Molecules in Protostars with ALMA Spectral Surveys (COMPASS): I. Overview of the ALMA Large Program
AU  - J. K. Jørgensen
AU  - A. Coutens
AU  - M. N. Drozdovskaya
AU  - J. -E. Lee
AU  - A. L. Plunkett
AU  - S. Maret
AU  - A. Belloche
AU  - D. Harsono
AU  - Z. Telkamp
AU  - F. Cruz-Sáenz de Miera
AU  - M. L. R. van 't Hoff
AU  - Á Kóspál
AU  - M. Rao
AU  - J. Bergner
AU  - J. -H. Jeong
AU  - S. Spezzano
AU  - B. A. McGuire
AU  - P. Nazari
AU  - Y. -L. Yang
AU  - H. -S. Yun
AU  - A. Andreu
AU  - J. Ferrer Asensio
AU  - C. -H. Kim
AU  - N. F. W. Ligterink
AU  - Y. Lin
AU  - S. -Y. Liu
AU  - M. Lützen
AU  - P. Marchand
AU  - C. Xue
AU  - S. Zeng
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/06
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.07864
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.07864
AB  - It remains a fundamental research question in astrochemistry to characterize the inventory of complex organic molecules formed during the early stages of star formation, which may affect the eventual chemical composition of protoplanetary disks and potentially planets. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) provides the angular resolution and sensitivity to zoom in on the hot (T > 100 K) gas surrounding embedded solar-type protostars and chart their molecular inventories with high accuracy. The ALMA Large Program Complex Organic Molecules in Protostars with ALMA Spectral Surveys (COMPASS) aims to provide comprehensive inventories of the molecular content of a sample of protostellar sources to understand the chemical impact of their environments and evolutionary stages. COMPASS is an unbiased spectral survey of 11 line-rich Class 0 and I protostellar sources in the spectral range from 279.0 to 311.7 GHz at 0.15-0.5" angular resolution with ALMA, corresponding to the inner ~100 au (radius) around the targeted sources. This paper provides an overview of the COMPASS program and the adopted strategy in terms of observational setups and targeted sources. We also present a qualitative comparison of the spatial distributions of selected molecules and the relative strengths of the line fluxes of selected complex organics. The qualitative comparisons suggest that chemical differences between sources may be present, for example, between the abundances of groups of oxygen- and nitrogen-bearing species, but also that such variations occur at levels smaller than an order of magnitude. Quantitative comparisons of abundances at these levels require the large bandwidth of the survey, as well as a careful analysis of the excitation and strengths of the several thousands of lines detected toward each source in the survey, as will be explored in forthcoming papers.
ER  -