Initial conditions for star formation in clusters: physical and kinematical structure of the starless core Oph A-N6

We present high spatial (<300 AU) and spectral (0.07 km/s) resolution Submillimeter Array observations of the dense starless cluster core Oph A-N6, in the 1 mm dust continuum and the 3-2 line of N2H+ and N2D+. The dust continuum observations reveal a compact source not seen in single-dish observations, of size ~1000 AU and mass 0.005-0.01 Modot. The combined line and single-dish observations reveal a core of size 3000 times 1400 AU elongated in a NW-SE direction, with almost no variation in either line width or line center velocity across the map, and very small non-thermal motions. The deuterium fraction has a peak value of ~0.15 and is >0.05 over much of the core. The N2H+ column density profile across the major axis of Oph A-N6 is well represented by an isothermal cylinder, with temperature 20 K, peak density 7.1 times 10^6 cm^{-3}, and N2H+ abundance 2.7 times 10^{-10}. The mass of Oph A-N6 is estimated to be 0.29 Modot, compared to a value of 0.18 Modot from the isothermal cylinder analysis, and 0.63 Modot for the critical mass for fragmentation of an isothermal cylinder. Compared to isolated low-mass cores, Oph A-N6 shows similar narrow line widths and small velocity variation, with a deuterium fraction similar to evolved dense cores. It is significantly smaller than isolated cores, with larger peak column and volume density. The available evidence suggests Oph A-N6 has formed through the fragmentation of the Oph A filament and is the precursor to a low-mass star. The dust continuum emission suggests it may already have begun to form a star.

Mass distributions of stars and cores in young groups and clusters

We investigate the relation of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) and the dense core mass function (CMF), using stellar masses and positions in 14 well-studied young groups. Initial column density maps are computed by replacing each star with a model initial core having the same star formation efficiency (SFE). For each group the SFE, core model, and observational resolution are varied to produce a realistic range of initial maps. A clumpfinding algorithm parses each initial map into derived cores, derived core masses, and a derived CMF. The main result is that projected blending of initial cores causes derived cores to be too few and too massive. The number of derived cores is fewer than the number of initial cores by a mean factor 1.4 in sparse groups and 5 in crowded groups. The mass at the peak of the derived CMF exceeds the mass at the peak of the initial CMF by a mean factor 1.0 in sparse groups and 12.1 in crowded groups. These results imply that in crowded young groups and clusters, the mass distribution of observed cores may not reliably predict the mass distribution of protostars which will form in those cores.