52 research outputs found
TRAO Survey of Nearby Filamentary Molecular clouds, the Universal Nursery of Stars (TRAO FUNS) I. Dynamics and Chemistry of L1478 in the California Molecular Cloud
"TRAO FUNS" is a project to survey Gould Belt's clouds in molecular lines.
This paper presents its first results on the central region of the California
molecular cloud, L1478. We performed On-The-Fly mapping observations using the
Taedeok Radio Astronomy Observatory (TRAO) 14m single dish telescope equipped
with a 16 multi-beam array covering 1.0 square degree area of this region
using CO (1-0) mainly tracing low density cloud and about 460 square
arcminute area using NH (1-0) mainly tracing dense cores. CS (2-1)
and SO were also used simultaneously to map 440 square
arcminute area of this region. We identified 10 filaments by applying the
dendrogram technique to the CO data-cube and 8 dense NH
cores by using {\sc FellWalker}. Basic physical properties of filaments such as
mass, length, width, velocity field, and velocity dispersion are derived. It is
found that L1478 consists of several filaments with slightly different
velocities. Especially the filaments which are supercritical are found to
contain dense cores detected in NH. Comparison of non-thermal
velocity dispersions derived from CO and NH for the
filaments and dense cores indicates that some of dense cores share similar
kinematics with those of the surrounding filaments while several dense cores
have different kinematics with those of their filaments. This suggests that the
formation mechanism of dense cores and filaments can be different in individual
filaments depending on their morphologies and environments.Comment: 25 pages, 15 figures, accepted for publication in Ap
Magnetic field structure around cores with very low luminosity objects
Aims. We carried out optical polarimetry of five dense cores, (IRAM 04191, L1521F, L328, L673-7, and L1014) which are found to harbour very low luminosity objects (VeLLOs; Lint ≲ 0.1 L⊙). This study was conducted mainly to understand the role played by the magnetic field in the formation of very low and substellar mass range objects.
Methods. Light from the stars, while passing through the dust grains that are aligned with their short axis parallel to an external magnetic field, becomes linearly polarised. The polarisation position angles measured for the stars can provide the plane-of-the sky magnetic field orientation. Because the light in the optical wavelength range is most efficiently polarised by the dust grains typically found at the outer layers of the molecular clouds, optical polarimetry mostly traces the magnetic field orientation of the core envelope.
Results. The polarisation observations of stars projected on IRAM 04191, L328, L673-7, and L1014 were obtained in the R-band and those of L1521F were obtained in the V-band. The angular offsets between the envelope magnetic field direction (inferred from optical polarisation measurements) and the outflow position angles from the VeLLOs in IRAM 04191, L1521F, L328, L673-7, and L1014 are found to be 84°, 53°, 24°, 08°, and 15°, respectively. The mean value of the offsets for all the five clouds is ~ 37°. If we exclude IRAM 04191, the mean value reduces to become ~ 25°. In IRAM 04191, the offset between the projected envelope and the inner magnetic field (inferred from the submillimetre data obtained using SCUBA-POL) is found to be ~ 68°. The inner magnetic field, however, is found to be nearly aligned with the projected position angles of the minor axis, the rotation axis of the cloud, and the outflow from the IRAM 04191-IRS. We discuss a possible explanation for the nearly perpendicular orientation between the envelope and core scale magnetic fields in IRAM 04191. The angular offset between the envelope magnetic field direction and the minor axis of IRAM 04191, L1521F, L673-7, and L1014 are 82°, 60°, 47°, and 55°, respectively. The mean value of the offsets between the envelope magnetic field and the minor axis position angles for the four cores is found to be ~ 60°.
Conclusions. The results obtained from our study on the limited sample of five cores with VeLLOs show that the outflows in three of them tend to nearly align with the envelope magnetic field
Mid- CO Line Observations of Protostellar Outflows in the Orion Molecular Clouds
Ten protostellar outflows in the Orion molecular clouds were mapped in the
CO/CO and CO
lines. The maps of these mid- CO lines have an angular resolution of about
10 and a typical field size of about 100. Physical parameters of the
molecular outflows were derived, including mass transfer rates, kinetic
luminosities, and outflow forces. The outflow sample was expanded by
re-analyzing archival data of nearby low-luminosity protostars, to cover a wide
range of bolometric luminosities. Outflow parameters derived from other
transitions of CO were compared. The mid- () and
low- () CO line wings trace essentially the same outflow
component. By contrast, the high- (up to )
line-emission luminosity of CO shows little correlation with the kinetic
luminosity from the line, which suggests that they trace
distinct components. The low/mid- CO line wings trace long-term outflow
behaviors while the high- CO lines are sensitive to short-term activities.
The correlations between the outflow parameters and protostellar properties are
presented, which shows that the strengths of molecular outflows increase with
bolometric luminosity and envelope mass.Comment: 31 pages, 16 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ
First Sub-parsec-scale Mapping of Magnetic Fields in the Vicinity of a Very-low-luminosity Object, L1521F-IRS
L1521F is found to be forming multiple cores and it is cited as an example of the densest core with an embedded VeLLO in a highly dynamical environment. We present the core-scale magnetic fields (B-fields) in the near vicinity of the VeLLO L1521F-IRS using submillimeter polarization measurements at 850 mu m using JCMT POL-2. This is the first attempt to use high-sensitivity observations to map the sub-parsec-scale B-fields in a core with a VeLLO. The B-fields are ordered and very well connected to the parsec-scale field geometry seen in our earlier optical polarization observations and the large-scale structure seen in Planck dust polarization. The core-scale B-field strength estimated using the Davis-Chandrasekhar-Fermi relation is 330 +/- 100 mu G, which is more than 10 times the value we obtained in the envelope (the envelope in this paper is the "core envelope"). This indicates that B-fields are getting stronger on smaller scales. The magnetic energies are found to be 1 to 2 orders of magnitude higher than nonthermal kinetic energies in the envelope and core. This suggests that magnetic fields are more important than turbulence in the energy budget of L1521F. The mass-to-flux ratio of 2.3 +/- 0.7 suggests that the core is magnetically supercritical. The degree of polarization is steadily decreasing toward the denser part of the core with a power-law slope of -0.86.Peer reviewe
Molecular Cloud Cores with a High Deuterium Fraction : Nobeyama Single-pointing Survey
We present the results of a single-pointing survey of 207 dense cores embedded in Planck Galactic Cold Clumps distributed in five different environments (lambda Orionis, Orion A, Orion B, the Galactic plane, and high latitudes) to identify dense cores on the verge of star formation for the study of the initial conditions of star formation. We observed these cores in eight molecular lines at 76-94 GHz using the Nobeyama 45 m telescope. We find that early-type molecules (e.g., CCS) have low detection rates and that late-type molecules (e.g., N(2)H(+)and c-C3H2) and deuterated molecules (e.g., N(2)D(+)and DNC) have high detection rates, suggesting that most of the cores are chemically evolved. The deuterium fraction (D/H) is found to decrease with increasing distance, indicating that it suffers from differential beam dilution between the D/H pair of lines for distant cores (>1 kpc). For lambda Orionis, Orion A, and Orion B located at similar distances, D/H is not significantly different, suggesting that there is no systematic difference in the observed chemical properties among these three regions. We identify at least eight high-D/H cores in the Orion region and two at high latitudes, which are most likely to be close to the onset of star formation. There is no clear evidence of the evolutionary change in turbulence during the starless phase, suggesting that the dissipation of turbulence is not a major mechanism for the beginning of star formation as judged from observations with a beam size of 0.04 pc.Peer reviewe
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