APEX/SABOCA observations of small-scale structure of infrared-dark clouds I. early evolutionary stages of star-forming cores

Ragan, Sarah ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4164-5588, Henning, Thomas and Beuther, Henrik 2013. APEX/SABOCA observations of small-scale structure of infrared-dark clouds I. early evolutionary stages of star-forming cores. Astronomy and Astrophysics 559 (Novemb) , A79. 10.1051/0004-6361/201321869

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Abstract

Infrared-dark clouds (IRDCs) harbor the early phases of cluster and high-mass star formation and are comprised of cold (~20 K), dense (n > 104 cm-3) gas. The spectral energy distribution (SED) of IRDCs is dominated by the far-infrared and millimeter wavelength regime, and our initial Herschel study examined IRDCs at the peak of the SED with high angular resolution. Here we present a follow-up study using the SABOCA instrument on APEX which delivers 7.8″ angular resolution at 350 μm, matching the resolution we achieved with Herschel/PACS, and allowing us to characterize substructure on ~0.1 pc scales. Our sample of 11 nearby IRDCs are a mix of filamentary and clumpy morphologies, and the filamentary clouds show significant hierarchical structure, while the clumpy IRDCs exhibit little hierarchical structure. All IRDCs, regardless of morphology, have about 14% of their total mass in small scale core-like structures which roughly follow a trend of constant volume density over all size scales. Out of the 89 protostellar cores we identified in this sample with Herschel, we recover 40 of the brightest and re-fit their SEDs and find their properties agree fairly well with our previous estimates (⟨ T ⟩ ~ 19 K). We detect a new population of 'cold cores' which have no 70 μm counterpart, but are 100 and 160 μm-bright, with colder temperatures (⟨ T ⟩ ~ 16 K). This latter population, along with SABOCA-only detections, are predominantly low-mass objects, but their evolutionary diagnostics are consistent with the earliest starless or prestellar phase of cores in IRDCs.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Physics and Astronomy
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy
Publisher:	EDP Sciences
ISSN:	0004-6361
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	27 November 2017
Date of Acceptance:	28 August 2013
Last Modified:	05 May 2023 01:49
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/106506

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