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Register a new userWater vapor toward starless cores: the Herschel view
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SWAS and Odin provided stringent upper limits on the gas phase water abundance of dark clouds (x(H2O) < 7x10^-9). We investigate the chemistry of water vapor in starless cores beyond the previous upper limits using the highly improved angular resolution and sensitivity of Herschel and measure the abundance of water vapor during evolutionary stages just preceding star formation. High spectral resolution observations of the fundamental ortho water (o-H2O) transition (557 GHz) were carried out with Herschel HIFI toward two starless cores: B68, a Bok globule, and L1544, a prestellar core embedded in the Taurus molecular cloud complex. The rms in the brightness temperature measured for the B68 and L1544 spectra is 2.0 and 2.2 mK, respectively, in a velocity bin of 0.59 km s^-1. The continuum level is 3.5+/-0.2 mK in B68 and 11.4+/-0.4 mK in L1544. No significant feature is detected in B68 and the 3 sigma upper limit is consistent with a column density of o-H2O N(o-H2O) < 2.5x10^13 cm^-2, or a fractional abundance x(o-H2O) < 1.3x10^-9, more than an order of magnitude lower than the SWAS upper limit on this source. The L1544 spectrum shows an absorption feature at a 5 sigma level from which we obtain the first value of the o-H2O column density ever measured in dark clouds: N(o-H2O) = (8+/-4)x10^12 cm^-2. The corresponding fractional abundance is x(o-H2O) ~ 5x10^-9 at radii > 7000 AU and ~2x10^-10 toward the center. The radiative transfer analysis shows that this is consistent with a x(o-H2O) profile peaking at ~10^-8, 0.1 pc away from the core center, where both freeze-out and photodissociation are negligible. Herschel has provided the first measurement of water vapor in dark regions. Prestellar cores such as L1544 (with their high central densities, strong continuum, and large envelopes) are very promising tools to finally shed light on the solid/vapor balance of water in molecular clouds.
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We used the new IRAM 30-m FTS backend to perform an unbiased ~15 GHz wide survey at 3 mm toward the Pipe Nebula young diffuse starless cores. We found an unexpectedly rich chemistry. We propose a new observational classification based on the 3 mm molecular line emission normalized by the core visual extinction (Av). Based on this classification, we report a clear differentiation in terms of chemical composition and of line emission properties, which served to define three molecular core groups. The diffuse cores, Av<~15, show poor chemistry with mainly simple species (e.g. CS and CCH). The oxo-sulfurated cores, Av~15--22, appear to be abundant in species like SO and SO2, but also in HCO, which seem to disappear at higher densities. Finally, the deuterated cores, Av>~22, show typical evolved chemistry prior to the onset of the star formation process, with nitrogenated and deuterated species, as well as carbon chain molecules. Based on these categories, one of the diffuse cores (Core 47) has the spectral line properties of the oxo-sulfurated ones, which suggests that it is a possible failed core.
We report the first systematic study of the submillimeter water vapor rotational emission lines in infrared (IR) galaxies based on the Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) data of {it Herschel} SPIRE. Among the 176 galaxies with publicly available FTS data, 45 have at least one H$_2$O emission line detected. The H$_2$O line luminosities range from $sim 1 times 10^5$ $L_{odot}$ to $sim 5 times 10^7 L_{odot}$ while the total IR luminosities ($L_mathrm{IR}$) have a similar spread ($sim 1-300 times 10^{10} L_{odot}$). In addition, emission lines of H$_2$O$^+$ and H$_2^{18}$O are also detected. H$_2$O is found, for most galaxies, to be the strongest molecular emitter after CO in FTS spectra. The luminosity of the five most important H$_2$O lines is near-linearly correlated with $L_mathrm{IR}$, no matter whether strong active galactic nucleus signature is present or not. However, the luminosity of H$_2$O($2_{11}-2_{02}$) and H$_2$O($2_{20}-2_{11}$) appears to increase slightly faster than linear with $L_mathrm{IR}$. Although the slope turns out to be slightly steeper when $zsim 2-4$ ULIRGs are included, the correlation is still closely linear. We find that $L_mathrm{H_2O}/L_mathrm{IR}$ decreases with increasing $f_{25}/f_{60}$, but see no dependence on $f_{60}/f_{100}$, possibly indicating that very warm dust contributes little to the excitation of the submillimeter H$_2$O lines. The average spectral line energy distribution (SLED) of the entire sample is consistent with individual SLEDs and the IR pumping plus collisional excitation model, showing that the strongest lines are H$_2$O($2_{02}-1_{11}$) and H$_2$O($3_{21}-3_{12}$).
The density and temperature structures of dense cores in the L1495 cloud of the Taurus star-forming region are investigated using Herschel SPIRE and PACS images in the 70 $mu$m, 160 $mu$m, 250 $mu$m, 350 $mu$m and 500 $mu$m continuum bands. A sample consisting of 20 cores, selected using spectral and spatial criteria, is analysed using a new maximum likelihood technique, COREFIT, which takes full account of the instrumental point spread functions. We obtain central dust temperatures, $T_0$, in the range 6-12 K and find that, in the majority of cases, the radial density falloff at large radial distances is consistent with the $r^{-2}$ variation expected for Bonnor-Ebert spheres. Two of our cores exhibit a significantly steeper falloff, however, and since both appear to be gravitationally unstable, such behaviour may have implications for collapse models. We find a strong negative correlation between $T_0$ and peak column density, as expected if the dust is heated predominantly by the interstellar radiation field. At the temperatures we estimate for the core centres, carbon-bearing molecules freeze out as ice mantles on dust grains, and this behaviour is supported here by the lack of correspondence between our estimated core locations and the previously-published positions of H$^{13}$CO$^+$ peaks. On this basis, our observations suggest a sublimation-zone radius typically $sim 10^4$ AU. Comparison with previously-published N$_2$H$^+$ data at 8400 AU resolution, however, shows no evidence for N$_2$H$^+$ depletion at that resolution.
In order to understand the collapse dynamics of observed low-mass starless cores, we revise the conventional stability condition of hydrostatic Bonnor-Ebert spheres to take internal motions into account. Because observed starless cores resemble Bonnor-Ebert density structures, the stability and dynamics of the starless cores are frequently analyzed by comparing to the conventional stability condition of a hydrostatic Bonnor-Ebert sphere. However, starless cores are not hydrostatic but have observed internal motions. In this study, we take gaseous spheres with a homologous internal velocity field and derive stability conditions of the spheres utilizing a virial analysis. We propose two limiting models of spontaneous gravitational collapse: the collapse of critical Bonnor-Ebert spheres and uniform density spheres. The collapse of these two limiting models are intended to provide the lower and the upper limits, respectively, of the infall speeds for a given density structure. The results of our study suggest that the stability condition sensitively depends on internal motions. A homologous inward motion with a transonic speed can reduce the critical size compared to the static Bonnor-Ebert sphere by more than a factor of two. As an application of the two limiting models of spontaneous gravitational collapse, we compare the density structures and infall speeds of the observed starless cores L63, L1544, L1689B, and L694-2 to the two limiting models. L1689B and L694-2 seem to have been perturbed to result in faster infall motions than for spontaneous gravitational collapse.
How do stars that are more massive than the Sun form, and thus how is the stellar initial mass function (IMF) established? Such intermediate- and high-mass stars may be born from relatively massive pre-stellar gas cores, which are more massive than the thermal Jeans mass. The Turbulent Core Accretion model invokes such cores as being in approximate virial equilibrium and in approximate pressure equilibrium with their surrounding clump medium. Their internal pressure is provided by a combination of turbulence and magnetic fields. Alternatively, the Competitive Accretion model requires strongly sub-virial initial conditions that then lead to extensive fragmentation to the thermal Jeans scale, with intermediate- and high-mass stars later forming by competitive Bondi-Hoyle accretion. To test these models, we have identified four prime examples of massive (~100Msun) clumps from mid-infrared extinction mapping of infrared dark clouds (IRDCs). Fontani et al. found high deuteration fractions of N2H+ in these objects, which are consistent with them being starless. Here we present ALMA observations of these four clumps that probe the N2D+(3-2) line at 2.3 resolution. We find six N2D+ cores and determine their dynamical state. Their observed velocity dispersions and sizes are broadly consistent with the predictions of the Turbulent Core model of self-gravitating, magnetized (with Alfven Mach number m_A~1) and virialized cores that are bounded by the high pressures of their surrounding clumps. However, in the most massive cores, with masses up to ~60Msun, our results suggest that moderately enhanced magnetic fields (so that m_A~0.3) may be needed for the structures to be in virial and pressure equilibrium. Magnetically regulated core formation may thus be important in controlling the formation of massive cores, inhibiting their fragmentation, and thus helping to establish the stellar IMF.
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