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Register a new userEvolution of column density distributions within Orion~A
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We compare the structure of star-forming molecular clouds in different regions of Orion A to determine how the column density probability distribution function (N-PDF) varies with environmental conditions such as the fraction of young protostars. A correlation between the N-PDF slope and Class 0 protostar fraction has been previously observed in a low-mass star-formation region (Perseus) by Sadavoy; here we test if a similar correlation is observed in a high-mass star-forming region. We use Herschel data to derive a column density map of Orion A. We use the Herschel Orion Protostar Survey catalog for accurate identification and classification of the Orion A young stellar object (YSO) content, including the short-lived Class 0 protostars (with a $sim$ 0.14 Myr lifetime). We divide Orion A into eight independent 13.5 pc$^2$ regions; in each region we fit the N-PDF distribution with a power-law, and we measure the fraction of Class 0 protostars. We use a maximum likelihood method to measure the N-PDF power-law index without binning. We find that the Class 0 fraction is higher in regions with flatter column density distributions. We test the effects of incompleteness, YSO misclassification, resolution, and pixel-scale. We show that these effects cannot account for the observed trend. Our observations demonstrate an association between the slope of the power-law N-PDF and the Class 0 fractions within Orion A. Various interpretations are discussed including timescales based on the Class 0 protostar fraction assuming a constant star-formation rate. The observed relation suggests that the N-PDF can be related to an evolutionary state of the gas. If universal, such a relation permits an evaluation of the evolutionary state from the N-PDF power-law index at much greater distances than those accesible with protostar counts. (abridged)
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We have conducted a large-field simultaneous survey of $^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO, and C$^{18}$O $J=1-0$ emission toward the Orion A giant molecular cloud (GMC) with a sky coverage of $sim$ 4.4 deg$^2$ using the PMO-13.7 m millimeter-wavelength telescope. We use the probability distribution function of the column density (N-PDF) to investigate the distribution of molecular hydrogen in the Orion A GMC. The H$_2$ column density, derived from the $^{13}$CO emission, of the GMC is dominated by log-normal distribution in the range from $sim$4$times10^{21}$ to $sim$1.5$times10^{23}$ cm$^{-2}$ with excesses both at the low-density and high-density ends. The excess of the low-density end is possibly caused by an extended and low-temperature ($sim$10 K) component with velocities in the range of 5$-$8 km s$^{-1}$. Compared with the northern sub-regions, the southern sub-regions of the Orion A GMC contain less gas with column density in $N_{H_2} > 1.25times 10^{22} rm{cm}^{-2}$. The dispersions of the N-PDFs of the sub-regions are found to correlate with the evolutionary stages of the clouds across the Orion A GMC. The structure hierarchy of Orion A GMC is explored with the DENDROGRAM algorithm, and it is found that the GMC is composed of two branches. All structures except one in the tree have virial parameters less than 2, indicating self-gravity is important on the spatial scales from $sim$0.3 to $sim$4 pc. Although power-laws and departures from log-normal distributions are found at the high-density end of N-PDFs of active star-forming regions, the N-PDFs of structures in the Orion A GMC are predominantly log-normal on scales from R$sim$0.4 to 4 pc.
The formation of stars is inextricably linked to the structure of their parental molecular clouds. Here we take a number of nearby giant molecular clouds (GMCs) and analyse their column density and mass distributions. This investigation is based on four new all-sky median colour excess extinction maps determined from 2MASS. The four maps span a range of spatial resolution of a factor of eight. This allows us to determine cloud properties at a common spatial scale of 0.1pc, as well as to study the scale dependence of the cloud properties. We find that the low column density and turbulence dominated part of the clouds can be well fit by a log-normal distribution. However, above a universal extinction threshold of 6.0 pm 1.5mag A_V there is excess material compared to the log-normal distribution in all investigated clouds. This material represents the part of the cloud that is currently involved in star formation, and thus dominated by gravity. Its contribution to the total mass of the clouds ranges over two orders of magnitude from 0.1 to 10%. This implies that our clouds sample various stages in the evolution of GMCs. Furthermore, we find that the column density and mass distributions are extremely similar between clouds if we analyse only the high extinction material. On the other hand, there are significant differences between the distributions if only the low extinction, turbulence dominated regions are considered. This shows that the turbulent properties differ between clouds depending on their environment. However, no significant influence on the predominant mode of star formation (clustered or isolated) could be found. Furthermore, the fraction of the cloud actively involved in star formation is only governed by gravity, with the column density and mass distributions not significantly altered by local feedback processes.
Recent observations of column densities in molecular clouds find lognormal distributions with power-law high-density tails. These results are often interpreted as indications that supersonic turbulence dominates the dynamics of the observed clouds. We calculate and present the column-density distributions of three clouds, modeled with very different techniques, none of which is dominated by supersonic turbulence. The first star-forming cloud is simulated using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH); in this case gravity, opposed only by thermal-pressure forces, drives the evolution. The second cloud is magnetically subcritical with subsonic turbulence, simulated using nonideal MHD; in this case the evolution is due to gravitationally-driven ambipolar diffusion. The third cloud is isothermal, self-gravitating, and has a smooth density distribution analytically approximated with a uniform inner region and an r^-2 profile at larger radii. We show that in all three cases the column-density distributions are lognormal. Power-law tails develop only at late times (or, in the case of the smooth analytic profile, for strongly centrally concentrated configurations), when gravity dominates all opposing forces. It therefore follows that lognormal column-density distributions are generic features of diverse model clouds, and should not be interpreted as being a consequence of supersonic turbulence.
We present a comparative study of the physical properties and the spatial distribution of column density peaks in two Giant Molecular Clouds (GMC), the Pipe Nebula and Orion A, which exemplify opposite cases of star cluster formation stages. The density peaks were extracted from dust extinction maps constructed from Herschel/SPIRE farinfrared images. We compare the distribution functions for dust temperature, mass, equivalent radius and mean volume density of peaks in both clouds, and made a more fair comparison by isolating the less active Tail region in Orion A and by convolving the Pipe Nebula map to simulate placing it at a distance similar to that of the Orion Complex. The peak mass distributions for Orion A, the Tail, and the convolved Pipe, have similar ranges, sharing a maximum near 5 M$_odot$, and a similar power law drop above 10 M$_odot$. Despite the clearly distinct evolutive stage of the clouds, there are very important similarities in the physical and spatial distribution properties of the column density peaks, pointing to a scenario where they form as a result of uniform fragmentation of filamentary structures across the various scales of the cloud, with density being the parameter leading the fragmentation, and with clustering being a direct result of thermal fragmentation at different spatial scales. Our work strongly supports the idea that the formation of clusters in GMC could be the result of the primordial organization of pre-stellar material
We report the first high angular resolution imaging (3.4arcsec $times$ 3.0arcsec) of deuterated formaldehyde (HDCO) toward Orion--KL, carried out with the Submillimeter Array (SMA). We find that the spatial distribution of the formaldehyde emission systematically differs from that of methanol: while methanol is found towards the inner part of the region, HDCO is found in colder gas that wraps around the methanol emission on four sides. The HDCO/H$_2$CO ratios are determined to be 0.003--0.009 within the region, up to an order of magnitude higher than the D/H measured for methanol. These findings strengthen the previously suggested hypothesis that there are differences in the chemical pathways leading to HDCO (via deuterated gas phase chemistry) and deuterated methanol (through conversion of formaldehyde into methanol on the surface of icy grain mantles).
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