The complex organic molecular inventory of the HD 100546 protoplanetary disk

Protoplanetary disks are important astrophysical objects which contain all the material, gas and dust, from which planets form. Quantifying the complex organic molecular content of these planet-forming disks is crucial in determining the potential habitability of exoplanetary systems. The surprising detection of the simplest oxygen-bearing complex organic molecule (COM), methanol, in the nearby disk around HD 100546 provides an interesting laboratory to study the chemistry of COMs in warm Herbig disks. Using the detection of methanol as a starting point, we investigate the complex organic molecular reservoir of the HD 100546 disk by quantifying the abundances of other complex molecules, 15 in total and comprising of the simplest members of the organic functional groups detected in astrophysical sources, focusing on those observable with ALMA and SKA. We perform ray-tracing calculations to calculate their molecular line emission strength and simulate line spectra over the ALMA and SKA bandwidths. The chemical model predicts abundances comparable to the observed methanol of most COMs in the gas phase, especially at the location of the dust cavity at 13 au. The disk line survey run predicts strong lines of mainly the nitrogen-bearing COMs, methyl cyanide and isocyanic acid with both ALMA and SKA. Fitting observed radial profiles with those extracted after performing ray-tracing calculations with LIME shows that the reservoirs of formaldehyde and methanol are constrained within an inner component and outer component, possibly contributing to the verification of the double ring structure in the disk. If detected, the COMs investigated in this work will expand the complex organic molecular inventory of warm Herbig disks, revealing the presence of the precursors to biologically important molecules in the material from which planets form.