A Low-mass Cold and Quiescent Core Population in a Massive Star Protocluster

分类： 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间： 2023-02-19

Shanghuo Li Xing Lu Qizhou Zhang Chang-Won Lee Patricio Sanhueza Henrik Beuther Izaskun Jiménez-Serra Keping Qiu Aina Palau Siyi Feng Thushara Pillai Kee-Tae Kim Hong-Li Liu Josep Miquel. Girart Tie Liu Junzhi Wang Ke Wang Hauyu Baobab Liu Howard A. Smith

摘要： Pre-stellar cores represent the initial conditions of star formation. Although these initial conditions in nearby low-mass star-forming regions have been investigated in detail, such initial conditions remain vastly unexplored for massive star-forming regions. We report the detection of a cluster of low-mass starless and pre-stellar core candidates in a massive star protocluster forming cloud, NGC6334S. With the ALMA observations at a $\sim$0.02 pc spatial resolution, we identified 17 low-mass starless core candidates that do not show any evidence of protostellar activity. These candidates present small velocity dispersions, high fractional abundances of NH$_{2}$D, high NH$_{3}$ deuterium fractionations, and are completely dark in the infrared wavelengths from 3.6 up to 70~$\mu$m. Turbulence is significantly dissipated and the gas kinematics are dominated by thermal motions toward these candidates. Nine out of the 17 cores are gravitationally bound, and therefore are identified as pre-stellar core candidates. The embedded cores of NGC6334S show a wide diversity in masses and evolutionary stages.

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