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We report ALMA Cycle 3 observations in CO isotopes toward a dense core, MC27/L1521F in Taurus, which is considered to be at an early stage of multiple star formation in a turbulent environment. Although most of the high-density parts of this core are considered to be as cold as $sim$10 K, high-angular resolution ($sim$20 au) observations in $^{12}$CO ($J$ = 3--2) revealed complex warm ($>$15--60 K) filamentary/clumpy structures with the sizes from a few tens of au to $sim$1,000 au. The interferometric observations of $^{13}$CO and C$^{18}$O show that the densest part with arc-like morphologies associated with the previously identified protostar and condensations are slightly redshifted from the systemic velocity of the core. We suggest that the warm CO clouds may be consequences of shock heating induced by interactions among the different density/velocity components that originated from the turbulent motions in the core. However, such a small-scale and fast turbulent motion does not correspond to a simple extension of the line-width-size relation (i.e., Larson{}s law), and thus the actual origin remains to be studied. The high-angular resolution CO observations are expected to be essential in detecting small-scale turbulent motions in dense cores and to investigate protostar formation therein.
We examine the chemical and emission properties of mildly irradiated (G0=1) magnetised shocks in diffuse media (nH=10^2 to 10^4 /cm3) at low to moderate velocities (from 3 to 40 km/s). Results: The formation of some molecules relies on endoergic reactions. In J-shocks, their abundances are enhanced by several orders of magnitude for shock velocities as low as 7 km/s. Otherwise most chemical properties of J-type shocks vary over less than an order of magnitude between velocities from about 7 to about 30 km/s, where H2 dissociation sets in. C-type shocks display a more gradual molecular enhancement as the shock velocity increases. We quantify the energy flux budget (fluxes of kinetic, radiated and magnetic energies) with emphasis on the main cooling lines of the cold interstellar medium. Their sensitivity to shock velocity is such that it allows observations to constrain statistical distributions of shock velocities. We fit various probability distribution functions (PDFs) of shock velocities to spectroscopic observations of the galaxy-wide shock in Stephans Quintet (SQ) and of a Galactic line of sight sampling diffuse molecular gas in Chamaeleon. In both cases, low velocities bear the greatest statistical weight and the PDF is consistent with a bimodal distribution. In the very low velocity shocks (below 5 km/s), dissipation is due to ion-neutral friction which powers H2 low energy transitions and atomic lines. In moderate velocity shocks (20 km/s and above), the dissipation is due to viscous heating and accounts for most of the molecular emission. In our interpretation a significant fraction of the gas on the line of sight is shocked (from 4% to 66%). For example, C+ emission may trace shocks in UV irradiated gas where C+ is the dominant carbon species.
We present molecular gas mass estimates for a sample of 13 local galaxies whose kinematic and star forming properties closely resemble those observed in $zapprox 1.5$ main-sequence galaxies. Plateau de Bure observations of the CO[1-0] emission line and Herschel Space Observatory observations of the dust emission both suggest molecular gas mass fractions of ~20%. Moreover, dust emission modeling finds $T_{dust}<$30K, suggesting a cold dust distribution compared to their high infrared luminosity. The gas mass estimates argue that $zsim$0.1 DYNAMO galaxies not only share similar kinematic properties with high-z disks, but they are also similarly rich in molecular material. Pairing the gas mass fractions with existing kinematics reveals a linear relationship between $f_{gas}$ and $sigma$/$v_{c}$, consistent with predictions from stability theory of a self-gravitating disk. It thus follows that high gas velocity dispersions are a natural consequence of large gas fractions. We also find that the systems with lowest depletion times ($sim$0.5 Gyr) have the highest ratios of $sigma$/$v_{c}$ and more pronounced clumps, even at the same high molecular gas fraction.
We present the results of ALMA observations of dust continuum emission and molecular rotational lines toward a dense core, MC27 (aka L1521F), which is considered to be very close to the first core phase. We revealed the spatial/velocity structures of the core are very complex and and suggest that the initial condition of star formation is highly dynamical.
We report new dynamical masses for 5 pre-main sequence (PMS) stars in the L1495 region of the Taurus star-forming region (SFR) and 6 in the L1688 region of the Ophiuchus SFR. Since these regions have VLBA parallaxes these are absolute measurements of the stars masses and are independent of their effective temperatures and luminosities. Seven of the stars have masses $<0.6$ solar masses, thus providing data in a mass range with little data, and of these, 6 are measured to precision $< 5 %$. We find 8 stars with masses in the range 0.09 to 1.1 solar mass that agree well with the current generation of PMS evolutionary models. The ages of the stars we measured in the Taurus SFR are in the range 1-3 MY, and $<1$ MY for those in L1688. We also measured the dynamical masses of 14 stars in the ALMA archival data for Akeson~&~Jensens Cycle 0 project on binaries in the Taurus SFR. We find that the masses of 7 of the targets are so large that they cannot be reconciled with reported values of their luminosity and effective temperature. We suggest that these targets are themselves binaries or triples.
Briceno et al. recently used optical imaging, data from the Two-Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS), and follow-up spectroscopy to search for young low-mass stars and brown dwarfs in 8 square degrees of the Taurus star-forming region. By the end of that study, there remained candidate members of Taurus that lacked the spectroscopic observations needed to measure spectral types and determine membership. In this work, we have obtained spectroscopy of the 22 candidates that have A_V<=8, from which we find six new Taurus members with spectral types of M2.75 through M9. The new M9 source has the second latest spectral type of the known members of Taurus (~0.02 M_sun). Its spectrum contains extremely strong emission in H_alpha (W~950 A) as well as emission in He I 6678 A and the Ca II IR triplet. This is the least massive object known to exhibit emission in He I and Ca II, which together with the strong H_alpha are suggestive of intense accretion.