Water in low-mass star-forming regions with Herschel HIFI spectroscopy of NGC 1333

Water In Star-forming regions with Herschel (WISH) is a key programme dedicated to studying the role of water and related species during the star-formation process and constraining the physical and chemical properties of young stellar objects. The Heterodyne Instrument for the Far-Infrared (HIFI) on the Herschel Space Observatory observed three deeply embedded protostars in the low-mass star-forming region NGC 1333 in several (H2O)-O-16, (H2O)-O-18, and CO transitions. Line profiles are resolved for five (H2O)-O-16 transitions in each source, revealing them to be surprisingly complex. The line profiles are decomposed into broad (>20 km s(-1)), medium-broad (similar to 5-10 km s(-1)), and narrow (20 km s(-1)), indicating that its physical origin is the same as for the broad (H2O)-O-16 component. In one of the sources, IRAS4A, an inverse P Cygni profile is observed, a clear sign of infall in the envelope. From the line profiles alone, it is clear that the bulk of emission arises from shocks, both on small (less than or similar to 1000 AU) and large scales along the outflow cavity walls (similar to 10 000 AU). The H2O line profiles are compared to CO line profiles to constrain the H2O abundance as a function of velocity within these shocked regions. The H2O/CO abundance ratios are measured to be in the range of similar to 0.1-1, corresponding to H2O abundances of similar to 10(-5)-10(-4) with respect to H-2. Approximately 5-10% of the gas is hot enough for all oxygen to be driven into water in warm post-shock gas, mostly at high velocities