The chemistry of silicon in hot molecular cores

The gas phase chemistry of hot molecular cores is thought to depend upon the composition of evaporated ice mantle material and its subsequent gas phase reactions. We have modelled the silicon chemistry in these conditions from an SiH₄ precursor and find substantial fractional abundances of SiO, H₂SiO and HNSi on a timescale of a few 10⁴ yr.     

Matter infall in collapsing molecular cloud cores with an axial magnetic field

The magnetic fields affect collapse of molecular cloud cores. Here, we consider a collapsing core with an axial magnetic field and investigate its effect on infall of matter and formation of accretion disk. For this purpose, the equations of motion of ions and neutral infalling particles are numerically solved to obtain the streamlines of trajectories. The results show that in a non-steady state of ionization and ion–neutral coupling, which is not unexpected in the case of infall, the radius of accretion disk will be larger as a consequence of axial magnetic field.     

Potential protostars in cloud cores

We present H₂CO observations of young protostar candidates in the Serpens Cloud Core. We find evidence for dense molecular gas in the cores of these objects that is warmer than the surrounding dust. The strong emission and gas properties support the premise that many of these sources may be very young protostars.     

Mid-infrared source multiplicity within hot molecular cores traced by methanol masers

We present high resolution, mid-infrared (MIR) images towards three hot molecular cores signposted by methanol maser emission: G173.49+2.42 (S231, S233IR), G188.95+0.89 (S252, AFGL-5180) and G192.60−0.05 (S255IR). Each of the cores was targeted with Michelle on Gemini North using five filters from 7.9 to 18.5 μm. We find each contains both large regions of extended emission and multiple, luminous point sources which, from their extremely red colours ( F _18.5/ F _7.9≥ 3), appear to be embedded young stellar objects. The closest angular separations of the point sources in the three regions are 0.79, 1.00 and 3.33 arcsec corresponding to linear separations of 1700, 1800 and 6000 au, respectively. The methanol maser emission is found closest to the brightest MIR point source (within the assumed 1-arcsec pointing accuracy). Mass and luminosity estimates for the sources range from 3 to  22 M_⊙  and from 50 to 40 000  L_⊙  , respectively. Assuming the MIR sources are embedded objects and the observed gas mass provides the bulk of the reservoir from which the stars formed, it is difficult to generate the observed distributions for the most massive cluster members from the gas in the cores using a standard form of the initial mass function.     

Dense cores in the L1630 molecular cloud: discovering new protostars with SCUBA

Maps of the 450- and 850-μm dust continuum emission from three star-forming condensations within the Lynds 1630 molecular cloud, made with the SCUBA bolometer array, reveal the presence of four new submillimetre sources, each of a few solar masses (two of which are probably class I and two of which are class 0), as well as several sources the existence of which was previously known. The sources are located in filaments and appear elongated when observed at 450 μm. They probably have dust temperatures in the range 10 to 20 K, in good agreement with previous ammonia temperature estimates. Attempts to fit their structures with power-law and Gaussian density distributions suggest that the central distribution is flatter than expected for a simple singular isothermal sphere.
Although the statistics are poor, our results suggest that the ratio of 'protostellar core' mass to total virial mass may be similar for both large and small condensations.     

The density and magnetic field of the dense cores of the molecular cloud L 1630

The density and magnetic field strength of the dense cores in the Orion B molecular cloud are derived from the observed radius and FWHM line width based on the model of a uniformly magnetic sphere. We obtain the average magnetic field strength of 110μG and the average density of 8 × 10⁴/cm³ for the 39 cores, which agree closely with the observations. The method for deriving the density and magnetic field strength is applicable to the cores with R>0.2pc.     

Molecular cores of the high-latitude cloud MBM 40

Towards the high-latitude cloud MBM 40, we identify 3 dense molecular cores of M0.2–0.5 M, and sizes of 0.2 pc in diameter embedded in the H I cloud of 8 M which is observed to be extended along the northeast–southwest direction. The molecular cloud is located almost perpendicularly to the H I emission. We confirm the previous result of Magnani et al. that MBM 40 is not a site for new star formations. We found a very poor correlation between the H I and the IRAS 100 μm emissions, but the CO (1–0) and 100 μm emissions show a better correlation of W_CO/I₁₀₀=1±0.2 K km s⁻¹ (MJy sr⁻¹)⁻¹. This ratio is larger by a factor of ≥5 than in dense dark clouds, which may indicate that the CO is less depleted in MBM 40 than in dense dark clouds.     

Dust dynamics in dense molecular cores

We show that in a quiescent, dense pre-stellar core, exposed to the average interstellar radiation field, radiation pressure can cause the dust to migrate inwards, relative to the gas, on a time-scale of a few megayears – and faster if the radiation field is stronger than average. This has two potentially important effects.
First, there is an increase in the abundance of dust relative to gas in the inner parts of the core, and hence also in the efficiency of gas-cooling by dust. The increased cooling efficiency predisposes these regions to dynamical collapse and star formation. Additionally, it predisposes them to fragmentation, particularly if – as seems likely – the dust enhancements are stochastic and inhomogeneous, due to anisotropy of the incident radiation field and/or to directing of the migration by the local magnetic field. It also increases the metallicities of the resulting stars, and hence presumably the likelihood of planet formation in their accretion discs.
Secondly, there is a steepening of the optical-depth profile, especially at those impact parameters b where the visual optical depth through the core   τ _t∼1  . Since the observational evidence for steep optical-depth profiles in the outer envelopes of some pre-stellar cores (specifically   τ _t∝ b ^{- β}   , with   β ≳2)  constrains only the dust column density, this leaves open the possibility that the gas has a shallower column-density profile.