The dense cloud associated with W40, one of the nearby H II regions, has been studied in millimeter-wave molecular lines and in 1.2 mm continuum. Besides, 1280 MHz and 610 MHz interferometric observations have been done. The cloud has complex morphol
ogical and kinematical structure, including a clumpy dust ring and an extended dense core. The ring is probably formed by the collect and collapse process due to the expansion of neighboring H II region. Nine dust clumps in the ring have been deconvolved. Their sizes, masses and peak hydrogen column densities are: $sim 0.02-0.11$ pc, $sim 0.4-8.1 M_{odot}$ and $sim (2.5-11)times 10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$, respectively. Molecular lines are observed at two different velocities and have different spatial distributions implying strong chemical differentiation over the region. The CS abundance is enhanced towards the eastern dust clump 2, while the NH$_3$, N$_2$H$^+$, and H$^{13}$CO$^+$ abundances are enhanced towards the western clumps. HCN and HCO$^+$ do not correlate with the dust probably tracing the surrounding gas. Number densities derived towards selected positions are: $sim (0.3-3.2)times 10^6$ cm$^{-3}$. Two western clumps have kinetic temperatures 21 K and 16 K and are close to virial equilibrium. The eastern clumps 2 and 3 are more massive, have higher extent of turbulence and are probably more evolved than the western ones. They show asymmetric CS(2--1) line profiles due to infalling motions which is confirmed by model calculations. An interaction between ionized and neutral material is taking place in the vicinity of the eastern branch of the ring and probably trigger star formation.
A high angular resolution, multi-wavelength study of the LINER galaxy NGC1614 has been carried out. OVRO CO 1-0 observations are presented together with extensive multi-frequency radio continuum and HI absorption observations with the VLA and MERLIN.
Toward the center of NGC1614, we have detected a ring of radio continuum emission with a radius of 300 pc. This ring is coincident with previous radio and Paschen-alpha observations. The dynamical mass of the ring based on HI absorption is 3.1 x 10E9 Msun. The peak of the integrated CO 1-0 emission is shifted by 1 to the north-west of the ring center and a significant fraction of the CO emission is associated with a crossing dust lane. An upper limit to the molecular gas mass in the ring region is 1.7 x 10E9 Msun. Inside the ring, there is a north to south elongated 1.4GHz radio continuum feature with a nuclear peak. This peak is also seen in the 5GHz radio continuum and in the CO. We suggest that the R=300 pc star forming ring represents the radius of a dynamical resonance - as an alternative to the scenario that the starburst is propagating outwards from the center into a molecular ring. The ring-like appearance probably part of a spiral structure. Substantial amounts of molecular gas have passed the radius of the ring and reached the nuclear region. The nuclear peak seen in 5GHz radio continuum and CO is likely related to previous star formation, where all molecular gas was not consumed. The LINER-like optical spectrum observed in NGC1614 may be due to nuclear starburst activity, and not to an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN). Although the presence of an AGN cannot be excluded.
We present a picture of star formation around the HII region Sh2-235 (S235) based upon data on the spatial distribution of young stellar clusters and the distribution and kinematics of molecular gas around S235. We observed 13CO(1-0) and CS(2-1) emis
sion toward S235 with the Onsala Space Observatory 20-m telescope and analysed the star density distribution with archival data from the 2MASS survey. Dense molecular gas forms a shell-like structure at the south-eastern part of S235. The young clusters found with 2MASS data are embedded in this shell. The positional relationship of the clusters, the molecular shell and the HII region indicates that expansion of S235 is responsible for the formation of the clusters. The gas distribution in the S235 molecular complex is clumpy, which hampers interpretation exclusively on the basis of the morphology of the star forming region. We use data on kinematics of molecular gas to support the hypothesis of induced star formation, and distinguish three basic types of molecular gas components. The first type is primordial undisturbed gas of the giant molecular cloud, the second type is gas entrained in motion by expansion of the HII region (this is where the embedded clusters were formed), and the third type is a fast-moving gas, which might have been accelerated by winds from the newly formed clusters. The clumpy distribution of molecular gas and its kinematics around the HII region implies that the picture of triggered star formation around S235 can be a mixture of at least two possibilities: the collect-and-collapse scenario and the compression of pre-existing dense clumps by the shock wave.
