14N/15N ratio in YSOs

This implies that the N_2_H^+^ isotopic ratio in protostellar cores should be lower than the one in prestellar cores, and consistent with the elemental value of ~440. We aim to test this hypothesis, producing the first sample of N_2_H^+^ /N^15^NH^+^ measurements in low mass protostars. We observe the N_2_H^+^ and N^15^NH^+^ lowest rotational transition towards six young stellar objects in Perseus and Taurusmolecular clouds.

We model the spectra with a custom python code using a constant T_ex_ approach to fit the observations. We discuss in appendix the validity of this hypothesis. The derived column densities are used to compute the nitrogen isotopic ratios.

Our analysis yields an average of^14^N/^15^N|_pro_=420+/-15 in the protostellar sample. This is consistent with the protosolar value of 440, and significantly lower than the average value previously obtained in a sample of prestellar objects. Our results are in agreement with the hypothesis that, when CO is depleted from the gas-phase, dissociative recombinations with free electrons destroy N^15^NH^+^ faster than N_2_H^+^ , leading to high isotopic ratios in prestellar cores, where carbon monoxide is frozen onto dust grains.