Chemical Variation in Molecular Cloud Cores in the Orion A Cloud

We have observed molecular cloud cores in the Orion A giant molecular cloud (GMC) in CCS, HC3N, DNC, and HN13C to study their chemical characteristics. We have detected CCS in the Orion A GMC for the first time. CCS was detected in about a third of the observed cores. The cores detected in CCS are not localized but are widely distributed over the Orion A GMC. The CCS peak intensity of the core tends to be high in the southern region of the Orion A GMC. The HC3N peak intensity of the core also tends to be high in the southern region, while there are HC3N intense cores near Orion KL, which is not seen in CCS. The core associated with Orion KL shows broad HC3N line profile, and star formation activity near Orion KL seems to enhance the HC3N emission. The column density ratio of NH3 to CCS is lower near the middle of the filament, and is higher toward the northern and southern regions along the Orion A GMC filament. This ratio is known to trace the chemical evolution in nearby dark cloud cores, but seems to be affected by core gas temperature in the Orion A GMC: cores with low NH3 to CCS column density ratios tend to have warmer gas temperature. The value of the column density ratio of DNC to HN13C is generally similar to that in dark cloud cores, but becomes lower around Orion KL due to higher gas temperature.Comment: 26 pages, 18 figures, to be published in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japa

Search for High-Mass Protostellar Objects in Cold IRAS Sources

We present the results of CS J=2-1 mapping observations towards 39 massive star-forming regions selected from the previous CO line survey of cold IRAS sources with high-velocity CO flows along the Galactic plane (Yang et al. 2002). All sources are detected in CS J=2-1 showing the existence of CS clumps around the IRAS sources. However, one-third of the sources are not deeply embedded in the dense clumps by comparison of the central powering IRAS sources and the morphologies of CS clumps. Physical parameters of the dense molecular clumps are presented. We have identified 12 high-mass protostellar object (HMPO) candidates by checking the association between the dense cores and the IRAS sources, the detection of water maser, and the radio properties towards the IRAS sources. We find that the HMPO sources are characterized by low FIR luminosity to virial mass ratios since they are in very early evolutionary stages when the massive protostars have not reached their full luminosities, which are typical for zero-age main sequence stars. Large turbulent motion in the HMPO sources may be largely due to the large kinetic energy ejected by the central protostars formed in the dense clumps. However, alternative means or undetected outflows may also be responsible for the turbulence in the clumps.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in A