| 1. |
- Barnes, A. T., et al.
(författare)
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ALMA-IRDC: dense gas mass distribution from cloud to core scales
- 2021
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Ingår i: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 503:3, s. 4601-4626
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) are potential hosts of the elusive early phases of high mass star formation (HMSF). Here, we conduct an in-depth analysis of the fragmentation properties of a sample of 10 IRDCs, which have been highlighted as some of the best candidates to study HMSF within the Milky Way. To do so, we have obtained a set of large mosaics covering these IRDCs with Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) at Band 3 (or 3 mm). These observations have a high angular resolution (similar to 3 arcsec; similar to 0.05 pc), and high continuum and spectral line sensitivity (similar to 0.15 mJy beam(-1) and similar to 0.2 K per 0.1 km s(-1) channel at the N2H+ (1 - 0) transition). From the dust continuum emission, we identify 96 cores ranging from low to high mass (M = 3.4-50.9M(circle dot)) that are gravitationally bound (alpha(vir) = 0.3-1.3) and which would require magnetic field strengths of B = 0.3-1.0 mG to be in virial equilibrium. We combine these results with a homogenized catalogue of literature cores to recover the hierarchical structure within these clouds over four orders of magnitude in spatial scale (0.01-10 pc). Using supplementary observations at an even higher angular resolution, we find that the smallest fragments (<0.02 pc) within this hierarchy do not currently have the mass and/or the density required to form high-mass stars. None the less, the new ALMA observations presented in this paper have facilitated the identification of 19 (6 quiescent and 13 star-forming) cores that retain >16M(circle dot) without further fragmentation. These high-mass cores contain trans-sonic non-thermal motions, are kinematically sub-virial, and require moderate magnetic field strengths for support against collapse. The identification of these potential sites of HMSF represents a key step in allowing us to test the predictions from high-mass star and cluster formation theories.
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| 2. |
- Fontani, F., et al.
(författare)
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ALMA-IRDC - II. First high-angular resolution measurements of the N-14/N-15 ratio in a large sample of infrared-dark cloud cores
- 2021
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Ingår i: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 503:3, s. 4320-4335
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The N-14/N-15 ratio in molecules exhibits a large variation in star-forming regions, especially when measured from N2H+ isotopologues. However, there are only a few studies performed at high-angular resolution. We present the first interferometric survey of the N-14/N-15 ratio in N2H+ obtained with Atacama Large Millimeter Array observations towards four infrared-dark clouds harbouring 3 mm continuum cores associated with different physical properties. We detect (NNH+)-N-15 (1-0) in of the cores, depending on the host cloud. The N-14/N-15 values measured towards the millimetre continuum cores range from a minimum of similar to 80 up to a maximum of similar to 400. The spread of values is narrower than that found in any previous single-dish survey of high-mass star-forming regions and than that obtained using the total power data only. This suggests that the N-14/N-15 ratio is on average higher in the diffuse gaseous envelope of the cores and stresses the need for high-angular resolution maps to measure correctly the N-14/N-15 ratio in dense cores embedded in IRDCs. The average N-14/N-15 ratio of similar to 210 is also lower than the interstellar value at the Galactocentric distance of the clouds (similar to 300-330), although the sensitivity of our observations does not allow us to unveil N-14/N-15 ratios higher than similar to 400. No clear trend is found between the N-14/N-15 ratio and the core physical properties. We find only a tentative positive trend between N-14/N-15 and H-2 column density. However, firmer conclusions can be drawn only with higher sensitivity measurements.
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| 3. |
- Jimenez-Serra, I., et al.
(författare)
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The Complex Organic Molecular Content in the L1498 Starless Core
- 2021
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 1538-4357 .- 0004-637X. ; 917:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Observations carried out toward starless and prestellar cores have revealed that complex organic molecules are prevalent in these objects, but it is unclear what chemical processes are involved in their formation. Recently, it has been shown that complex organics are preferentially produced at an intermediate-density shell within the L1544 prestellar core at radial distances of similar to 4000 au with respect to the core center. However, the spatial distribution of complex organics has only been inferred toward this core, and it remains unknown whether these species present a similar behavior in other cores. We report high-sensitivity observations carried out toward two positions in the L1498 starless core, the dust peak and a position located at a distance of similar to 11,000 au from the center of the core where the emission of CH3OH peaks. Similarly to L1544, our observations reveal that small O-bearing molecules and N-bearing species are enhanced by factors of similar to 4-14 toward the outer shell of L1498. However, unlike L1544, large O-bearing organics such as CH3CHO, CH3OCH3, or CH3OCHO are not detected within our sensitivity limits. For N-bearing organics, these species are more abundant toward the outer shell of the L1498 starless core than toward the one in L1544. We propose that the differences observed between O-bearing and N-bearing species in L1498 and L1544 are due to the different physical structure of these cores, which in turn is a consequence of their evolutionary stage, with L1498 being younger than L1544.
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| 4. |
- Liu, Mengyao, et al.
(författare)
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SiO Outflows as Tracers of Massive Star Formation in Infrared Dark Clouds
- 2021
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 1538-4357 .- 0004-637X. ; 921:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- To study the early phases of massive star formation, we present ALMA observations of SiO(5-4) emission and VLA observations of 6 cm continuum emission toward 32 Infrared Dark Cloud clumps, spatially resolved down to less than or similar to 0.05 pc. Out of the 32 clumps, we detect SiO emission in 20 clumps, and in 11 of them the SiO emission is relatively strong and likely tracing protostellar outflows. Some SiO outflows are collimated, while others are less ordered. For the six strongest SiO outflows, we estimate basic outflow properties. In our entire sample, where there is SiO emission, we find 1.3 mm continuum and infrared emission nearby, but not vice versa. We build the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of cores with 1.3 mm continuum emission and fit them with radiative transfer models. The low luminosities and stellar masses returned by SED fitting suggest these are early-stage protostars. We see a slight trend of increasing SiO line luminosity with bolometric luminosity, which suggests more powerful shocks in the vicinity of more massive YSOs. We do not see a clear relation between the SiO luminosity and the evolutionary stage indicated by L/M. We conclude that, as a protostar approaches a bolometric luminosity of similar to 10(2) L (circle dot), the shocks in the outflow are generally strong enough to form SiO emission. The VLA 6 cm observations toward the 15 clumps with the strongest SiO emission detect emission in four clumps, which is likely from shock-ionized jets associated with the more massive ones of these protostellar cores.
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| 5. |
- O'Neill, Theo J., et al.
(författare)
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The Core Mass Function across Galactic Environments. III. Massive Protoclusters
- 2021
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 1538-4357 .- 0004-637X. ; 916:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is fundamental for many areas of astrophysics, but its origin remains poorly understood. It may be inherited from the core mass function (CMF) or arise as a result of more chaotic, competitive accretion. Dense, gravitationally bound cores are seen in molecular clouds and some observations have suggested that the CMF is similar in shape to the IMF, though translated to higher masses by a factor of similar to 3. Here we measure the CMF in 28 dense clumps within 3.5 kpc that are likely to be central regions of massive protoclusters, observed via 1.3 mm dust continuum emission by the ALMAGAL project. We identify 222 cores using the dendrogram algorithm with masses ranging from 0.04 to 252 M-circle dot. We apply completeness corrections for flux and number recovery, estimated from core insertion and recovery experiments. At higher masses, the final derived CMF is well described by a single power law of the form dN/d log M proportional to M-alpha alpha similar or equal to 0.94 +/- 0.08. However, we find evidence of a break in this power-law behavior between similar to 5 and 15 M-circle dot, which is, to our knowledge, the first time such a break has been found in distant (greater than or similar to 1 kpc) regions by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. We compare this massive protocluster CMF with those derived using the same methods in the G286 protocluster and a sample of infrared dark clouds. The massive protocluster CMF is significantly different, i.e., containing more massive cores, which is a potential indication of the role of environment on the CMF and IMF.
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