The JCMT dense gas survey of the Perseus Molecular Cloud

We present the results of a large-scale survey of the very dense gas in the Perseus molecular cloud using HCO+ and HCN (J = 4 - 3) transitions. We have used this emission to trace the structure and kinematics of gas found in pre- and protostellar cores, as well as in outflows. We compare the HCO+/HCN data, highlighting regions where there is a marked discrepancy in the spectra of the two emission lines. We use the HCO+ to identify positively protostellar outflows and their driving sources, and present a statistical analysis of the outflow properties that we derive from this tracer. We find that the relations we calculate between the HCO+ outflow driving force and the Menv and Lbol of the driving source are comparable to those obtained from similar outflow analyses using 12CO, indicating that the two molecules give reliable estimates of outflow properties. We also compare the HCO+ and the HCN in the outflows, and find that the HCN traces only the most energetic outflows, the majority of which are driven by young Class 0 sources. We analyse the abundances of HCN and HCO+ in the particular case of the IRAS 2A outflows, and find that the HCN is much more enhanced than the HCO+ in the outflow lobes. We suggest that this is indicative of shock-enhancement of HCN along the length of the outflow; this process is not so evident for HCO+, which is largely confined to the outflow base.

The structure and kinematics of dense gas in NGC 2068

We have carried out a survey of the NGC 2068 region in the Orion B molecular cloud using HARP on the JCMT, in the 13CO and C18O (J = 3-2) and H13CO+ (J = 4-3) lines. We used 13CO to map the outflows in the region, and matched them with previously defined SCUBA cores. We decomposed the C18O and H13CO+ into Gaussian clumps, finding 26 and 8 clumps respectively. The average deconvolved radii of these clumps is 6200 +/- 2000 AU and 3600 +/- 900 AU for C18O and H13CO+ respectively. We have also calculated virial and gas masses for these clumps, and hence determined how bound they are. We find that the C18O clumps are more bound than the H13CO+ clumps (average gas mass to virial mass ratio of 4.9 compared to 1.4). We measure clump internal velocity dispersions of 0.28 +/- 0.02 kms-1 and 0.27 +/- 0.04 kms-1 for C18O and H13CO+ respectively, although the H13CO+ values are heavily weighted by a majority of the clumps being protostellar, and hence having intrinsically greater linewidths. We suggest that the starless clumps correspond to local turbulence minima, and we find that our clumps are consistent with formation by gravoturbulent fragmentation. We also calculate inter-clump velocity dispersions of 0.39 +/- 0.05 kms-1 and 0.28 +/- 0.08 kms-1 for C18O and H13CO+ respectively. The velocity dispersions (both internal and external) for our clumps match results from numerical simulations of decaying turbulence in a molecular cloud. However, there is still insufficient evidence to conclusively determine the type of turbulence and timescale of star formation, due to the small size of our sample.