PHYSICAL PROPERTIES OF DENSE CORES IN THE {rho} OPHIUCHI MAIN CLOUD AND A SIGNIFICANT ROLE OF EXTERNAL PRESSURES IN CLUSTERED STAR FORMATION

Journal Article · Sat May 01 04:00:00 EDT 2010 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/714/1/680· OSTI ID:21448883

Maruta, Hajime; Nishi, Ryoichi ^[1]; Nakamura, Fumitaka ^[2]; Ikeda, Norio; Kitamura, Yoshimi ^[3]

---

1. Department of Physics, Niigata University, 8050 Ikarashi-2, Niigata 950-2181 (Japan)
2. Division of Theoretical Astrophysics, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, Mitaka, Tokyo, 181-8588 (Japan)
3. Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Sagamihara, Kanagawa 229-8510 (Japan)

Using the archive data of the H{sup 13}CO{sup +} (J = 1-0) line emission taken with the Nobeyama 45 m radio telescope with a spatial resolution of {approx} 0.01 pc, we have identified 68 dense cores in the central dense region of the {rho} Ophiuchi main cloud. The H{sup 13}CO{sup +} data also indicate that the fractional abundance of H{sup 13}CO{sup +} relative to H{sub 2} is roughly inversely proportional to the square root of the H{sub 2} column density with a mean of 1.72 x 10{sup -11}. The mean radius, FWHM line width, and LTE mass of the identified cores are estimated to be 0.045 {+-} 0.011 pc, 0.49 {+-} 0.14 km s{sup -1}, and 3.4 {+-} 3.6 M{sub sun}, respectively. The majority of the identified cores have subsonic internal motions. The virial ratio, the ratio of the virial mass to the LTE mass, tends to decrease with increasing LTE mass and about 60% of the cores have virial ratios smaller than 2, indicating that these cores are not transient structures but self-gravitating. The detailed virial analysis suggests that the surface pressure often dominates over the self-gravity and thus plays a crucial role in regulating core formation and evolution. By comparing the {rho} Oph cores with those in the Orion A molecular cloud observed with the same telescope, we found that the statistical properties of the core physical quantities are similar between the two clouds if the effect of the different spatial resolutions is corrected. The line widths of the {rho} Oph cores appear to be nearly independent of the core radii over the range of 0.01-0.1 pc and deviate upward from the Heyer and Brunt relation. This may be evidence that turbulent motions are driven by protostellar outflows in the cluster environment.

• OSTI ID: 21448883
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 714; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ABUNDANCE
ANTENNAS
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
ELEMENTS
EMISSION
EQUILIBRIUM
EQUIPMENT
GRAVITATION
HYDROGEN
LTE
MASS
NONMETALS
RADIO EQUIPMENT
RADIO TELESCOPES
RESOLUTION
SPATIAL RESOLUTION
STARS
TELESCOPES