No Arabic abstract
We carried out 13CO J=1-0, CS, and C34S J=2-1 and J=3-2 line observations of molecular clouds associated with 16 ultracompact (UC) HII regions with extended envelopes. The molecular clouds are the ones that give birth to rich stellar clusters and/or very massive (O7-O4) stars. Our data show that the clouds are very clumpy and of irregular morphology. They usually have much larger masses, velocity dispersions, and fractions of dense gas than molecular clouds that form early B or late O stars. This is compatible with earlier findings that more massive stars form in more massive cores. 13CO cores are in general associated with compact HII regions regardless of the presence of UC HII regions therein. In contrast, CS cores are preferentially associated with compact HII regions that contain UC HII regions. As with the fact that the compact HII regions containing UC HII regions are more compact than those not associated with UC HII regions, these indicate that the former may be in an earlier evolutionary phase than the latter. The diffuse extended envelopes of HII regions often develop in the direction of decreasing molecular gas density. Based on detailed comparison of molecular line data with radio continuum and recombination line data, the extended ionized envelopes are likely the results of champagne flows in at least 10 sources in our sample. Together these results appear to support a published suggestion that the extended emission around UC HII regions can be naturally understood by combining the champagne flow model with the hierarchical structure of molecular clouds. We discuss the implication of our results for the blister model of HII regions.
We present the results of a morphological study performed to a sample of Ultracompact (UC) HII regions with Extended Emission (EE) using Spitzer--IRAC imagery and 3.6 cm VLA conf. D radio-continuum (RC) maps. Some examples of the comparison between maps and images are presented. Usually there is an IR point source counterpart to the peak(s) of RC emission, at the position of the UC source. We find that the predominant EE morphology is the cometary, and in most cases is coincident with IR emission at 8.0 $mu$m. Preliminary results of Spitzer--IRAC photometry of a sub-sample of 13 UC HII regions with EE based on GLIMPSE legacy data are also presented. Besides, individual IRAC photometry was performed to 19 UC sources within these 13 regions. We show that UC sources lie on specific locus, both in IRAC color-color and AM-product diagnostic diagrams. Counts of young stellar sources are presented for each region, and we conclude that a proportion of ~ 2%, ~10%, and ~88% of sources in the UC HII regions with EE are, in average, Class I, II, and III, respectively.
We present molecular line and 1.4 mm continuum observations towards five massive star forming regions at arcsecond resolution using the Submillimeter Array (SMA). We find that the warm molecular gas surrounding each HII region (as traced by SO_2 and OCS) appears to be undergoing bulk rotation. From the molecular line emission and thermal component of the continuum emission, we independently derived gas masses for each region which are consistent with each other. From the free-free component of the continuum emission we estimate the minimum stellar mass required to power the HII region and find that this mass, when added to the derived gas mass, is a significant fraction of the dynamical mass for that region.
We have used the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) to make observations of a sample of eight young ultra-compact HII regions, selected on the basis that they have associated class II methanol maser emission. We have made observations sensitive to both compact and extended structures and find both to be present in most sources. The scale of the extended emission in our sample is in general less than that observed towards samples based on IRAS properties, or large single-dish flux densities. Our observations are consistent with a scenario where extended and compact radio continuum emission coexists within HII regions for a significant period of time. We suggest that these observations are consistent with a model where HII evolution takes place within hierarchically structured molecular clouds. This model is the subject of a companion paper (Shabala et al. 2005) and addresses both the association between compact and extended emission and UCHII region lifetime problem.
Ultracompact and hypercompact HII regions appear when a star with a mass larger than about 15 solar masses starts to ionize its own environment. Recent observations of time variability in these objects are one of the pieces of evidence that suggest that at least some of them harbor stars that are still accreting from an infalling neutral accretion flow that becomes ionized in its innermost part. We present an analysis of the properties of the HII regions formed in the 3D radiation-hydrodynamic simulations presented by Peters et al. as a function of time. Flickering of the HII regions is a natural outcome of this model. The radio-continuum fluxes of the simulated HII regions, as well as their flux and size variations are in agreement with the available observations. From the simulations, we estimate that a small but non-negligible fraction (~ 10 %) of observed HII regions should have detectable flux variations (larger than 10 %) on timescales of ~ 10 years, with positive variations being more likely to happen than negative variations. A novel result of these simulations is that negative flux changes do happen, in contrast to the simple expectation of ever growing HII regions. We also explore the temporal correlations between properties that are directly observed (flux and size) and other quantities like density and ionization rates.
We derive the molecular properties for a sample of 301 Galactic HII regions including 123 ultra compact (UC), 105 compact, and 73 diffuse nebulae. We analyze all sources within the BU-FCRAO Galactic Ring Survey (GRS) of 13CO emission known to be HII regions based upon the presence of radio continuum and cm-wavelength radio recombination line emission. Unlike all previous large area coverage 13CO surveys, the GRS is fully sampled in angle and yet covers ~75 square degrees of the Inner Galaxy. The angular resolution of the GRS 46 allows us to associate molecular gas with HII regions without ambiguity and to investigate the physical properties of this molecular gas. We find clear CO/HII morphological associations in position and velocity for ~80% of the nebular sample. Compact HII region molecular gas clouds are on average larger than UC clouds: 2.2 compared to 1.7. Compact and UC HII regions have very similar molecular properties, with ~5K line intensities and ~4 km/s line widths. The diffuse HII region molecular gas has lower line intensities, ~3K, and smaller line widths, ~3.5 km/s. These latter characteristics are similar to those found for quiescent molecular clouds in the GRS. Our sample nebulae thus show evidence for an evolutionary sequence wherein small, dense molecular gas clumps associated with UC HII regions grow into older compact nebulae and finally fragment and dissipate into large, diffuse nebulae.