Your conditions: Hector G. Arce
  • Star Formation in a Strongly Magnetized Cloud

    Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19

    Abstract: We study star formation in the Center Ridge 1 (CR1) clump in the Vela C giant molecular cloud, selected as a high column density region that shows the lowest level of dust continuum polarization angle dispersion, likely indicating that the magnetic field is relatively strong. We observe the source with the ALMA 7m-array at 1.05~mm and 1.3~mm wavelengths, which enable measurements of dust temperature, core mass and astrochemical deuteration. A relatively modest number of eleven dense cores are identified via their dust continuum emission, with masses spanning from 0.17 to 6.7 Msun. Overall CR1 has a relatively low compact dense gas fraction compared with other typical clouds with similar column densities, which may be a result of the strong magnetic field and/or the very early evolutionary stage of this region. The deuteration ratios, Dfrac, of the cores, measured with N2H+(3-2) and N2D+(3-2) lines, span from 0.011 to 0.85, with the latter being one of the highest values yet detected. The level of deuteration appears to decrease with evolution from prestellar to protostellar phase. A linear filament, running approximately parallel with the large scale magnetic field orientation, is seen connecting the two most massive cores, each having CO bipolar outflows aligned orthogonally to the filament. The filament contains the most deuterated core, likely to be prestellar and located midway between the protostars. The observations permit measurement of the full deuteration structure of the filament along its length, which we present. We also discuss the kinematics and dynamics of this structure, as well as of the dense core population.

  • A Census of Protostellar Outflows in Nearby Molecular Clouds

    Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19

    Abstract: We adopt the deep learning method CASI-3D (Convolutional Approach to Structure Identification-3D) to systemically identify protostellar outflows in 12CO and 13CO observations of the nearby molecular clouds, Ophiuchus, Taurus, Perseus and Orion. The total outflow masses are 267 Msun, 795 Msun, 1305 Msun and 6332 Msun for Ophiuchus, Taurus, Perseus and Orion, respectively. We show the outflow mass in each cloud is linearly proportional to the total number of young stellar objects. The estimated total 3D deprojected outflow energies are 9e45 ergs, 6e46 ergs, 1.2e47 ergs and 6e47 ergs for Ophiuchus, Taurus, Perseus and Orion, respectively. The energy associated with outflows is sufficient to offset turbulent dissipation at the current epoch for all four clouds. All clouds also exhibit a break point in the spatial power spectrum of the outflow prediction map, which likely corresponds to the typical outflow mass and energy injection scale.