Methanol in the L1551 Circumbinary Torus

We report observations of gaseous methanol in an edge-on torus surroundingthe young stellar object L1551 IRS5. The peaks in the torus are separated by ~10,000 AU from L1551 IRS5, and contain ~ 0.03 earth masses of cold methanol. Weinfer that the methanol abundance increases in the outer part of the torus,probably as a result of methanol evaporation from dust grain surfaces heated bythe shock luminosity associated with the shocks associated with the jets of anexternally located x-ray source. Any methanol released in such a coldenvironment will rapidly freeze again, spreading methanol throughout thecircumbinary torus to nascent dust grains, planitesimals, and primitive bodies.These observations probe the initial chemical conditions of matter infallingonto the disk.Comment: 5 pages four figures. ApJ Letters in pres