Mapping Water and related Hydrides in Massive Protostellar outflows with HIFI

Massive outflows are known to drive a special chemical complexity due to thestrong shocks they produce in the surrounding molecular material. Hydrides are key ingredients of interstellar chemistry since they are theinitial products of chemical networks that lead to the formation of morecomplex molecules. Given their small reduced masses, their rotational lineslie at short submm wavelengths, which are almost unobservable from theground. With the HIFI instrument on board of the Herschel satellite it is nowpossible to observe the strongest transitions of light hydrides, in particularH2O but also the reactive ions OH+ and H2O+, which are thought to play acrucial role in the formation of OH and H2O. HIFI early results revealed thatindeed water and its cation H2O+ are abundant components of theinterstellar medium. The additional HIFI detection of OH+ is an importantconfirmation of the gasphase route of water. Although key programs havetargeted few massive sources to map the water distribution, acomprehensive study including other important hydrides such as OH+ and H2O+,and covering sources in different evolutionary phases, has notbeen provided yet.This project proposes a dedicated study of water and related hydrides (H2O+ andOH+) in massive protostellar outflows in order to: a) trace the waterdistribution throughout the different evolutionary phases of massive starformation, b) determine the contribution of water emission in the energy lostby shocks, and c) unveil the role of ions such as OH+ and H2O+ in the production of water. truncated!, Please see actual data for full text [truncated!, Please see actual data for full text]