We present 1.3mm continuum and spectral line images of two massive molecular clumps P1 and P2 in the G28.34+0.06 region with the Submillimeter Array. While the two clumps contain masses of 1000 and 880 \msun, respectively, P1 has a luminosity $< 10^2$ \lsun, and a lower gas temperature and smaller line width than P2. Thus, P1 appears to be at a much earlier stage of massive star formation than P2. The high resolution SMA observations reveal two distinctive cores in P2 with masses of 97 and 49 \msun, respectively. The 4 GHz spectral bandpass captures line emission from CO isotopologues, SO, CH$_3$OH, and CH$_3$CN, similar to hot molecular cores harboring massive young stars. The P1 clump, on the other hand, is resolved into five cores along the filament with masses from 22 to 64 \msun and an average projected separation of 0.19 pc. Except $^{12}$CO, no molecular line emission is detected toward the P1 cores at a 1$σ$ rms of 0.1 K. Since strong $^{12}$CO and C$^{18}$O emissions are seen with the single dish telescope at a resolution of 11$''$, the non-detection of these lines with the SMA indicates a depletion factor upto $10^3$. While the spatial resolution of the SMA is better than the expected Jeans length, the masses in P1 cores are much larger than the thermal Jeans mass, indicating the importance of turbulence and/or magnetic fields in cloud fragmentation. The hierarchical structures in the P1 region provide a glimpse of the initial phase of massive star and cluster formation.
We investigate how the environment affects the assembly history of massive galaxies. For that purpose, we make use of SHARDS and HST spectro-photometric data, whose depth, spectral resolution, and wavelength coverage allow to perform a detailed analysis of the stellar emission as well as obtaining unprecedentedly accurate photometric redshifts. This expedites a sufficiently accurate estimate of the local environment and a robust derivation of the star formation histories of a complete sample of 332 massive galaxies ($\mathrm{>10^{10}M_{\odot}}$) at redshift $1\leq z \leq 1.5$ in the GOODS-N fi…
Understanding the formation of wide binary systems of very low mass stars (M $\le$ 0.1 Msun) is challenging. The most obvious route is via widely separated low-mass collapsing fragments produced through turbulent fragmentation of a molecular core. However, close binaries/multiples from disk fragmentation can also evolve to wide binaries over a few initial crossing times of the stellar cluster through tidal evolution. Finding an isolated low mass wide binary system in the earliest stage of formation, before tidal evolution could occur, would prove that turbulent fragmentation is a viable mechan…
The early evolution of massive cluster progenitors is poorly understood. We investigate the fragmentation properties from 0.3 pc to 0.06 pc scales of a homogenous sample of infrared-quiet massive clumps within 4.5 kpc selected from the ATLASGAL survey. Using the ALMA 7m array we detect compact dust continuum emission towards all targets, and find that fragmentation, at these scales, is limited. The mass distribution of the fragments uncovers a large fraction of cores above 40 $M_\odot$, corresponding to massive dense cores (MDCs) with masses up to ~400 $M_\odot$. 77 % of the clumps contain at …
Physical Conditions of the Earliest Phases of Massive Star Formation: Single-Dish and Interferometric Observations of Ammonia and CCS in Infrared Dark Clouds
红外暗云（IRDC）是大质量恒星形成的最早阶段，许多红外暗云中的致密核心，通过毫米连续谱或高临界密度线中的分子发射来追踪，承载着大质量年轻恒星（YSO）。我们使用了罗伯特C。伯德格林班克望远镜（GBT）和卡尔G。Jansky甚大阵列（VLA）绘制了9个IRDC中的NH $_{3}$和CCS，以揭示温度、密度和速度结构，并探索致密（$>10^{22}$ cm $^{-2}$）气体中的化学演化。氨是这些寒冷、密集环境的一种极好的分子示踪剂。IRDC的内部结构和运动学包括速度梯度、细丝和可能的碰撞团块，它们阐明了这些结构及其YSO的形成过程。我们发现了各种各样的子结构，包括不同速度的细丝和小球，有时在正在进行的恒星形成的地点重叠。看来这些IRDC仍然是由分子气体团组装而成的，即使恒星形成已经开始，其中至少有三个似乎与文献中讨论的“枢纽-细丝结构”的形态一致。此外，我们发现这些团块通常在引力能和动能之间接近均分，因此这些结构可能会在多个自由落体时间内幸存下来。关键词：分子数据-- ISM：云--（ISM：）尘埃，灭绝-- ISM：分子--恒星：形成--射电线：ISM
Massive stars, multiple stellar systems and clusters are born from the gravitational collapse of massive dense gaseous clumps, and the way these systems form strongly depends on how the parent clump fragments into cores during collapse. Numerical simulations show that magnetic fields may be the key ingredient in regulating fragmentation. Here we present ALMA observations at ~0.25'' resolution of the thermal dust continuum emission at ~278 GHz towards a turbulent, dense, and massive clump, IRAS 16061-5048c1, in a very early evolutionary stage. The ALMA image shows that the clump has fragmented …
The structure formation of the dense interstellar material and the fragmentation of clumps into cores is a fundamental step to understand how stars and stellar clusters form. We aim to establish a statistical view of clump fragmentation at sub-parsec scales based on a large sample of massive clumps selected from the ATLASGAL survey. We used the APEX/SABOCA camera at 350 $μ$m to image clumps at a resolution of 8.$''$5. The majority of the sample consists of massive clumps that are weak or in absorption at 24 $μ$m. We resolve rich filamentary structures and identify the population of compact sou…
Molecular clouds have complex density structures produced by processes including turbulence and gravity. We propose a triangulation-based method to dissect the density structure of a molecular cloud and study the interactions between dense cores and their environments. In our {approach}, a Delaunay triangulation is constructed, which consists of edges connecting these cores. Starting from this construction, we study the physical connections between neighboring dense cores and the ambient environment in a systematic fashion. We apply our method to the Cygnus-X massive GMC complex and find that …
Disc fragmentation. II. Ejection of low mass Free Floating Planets from growing binary systems
University of Leicester（莱斯特大学）；IRAP, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier, CNES（法国图卢兹大学/国家科学研究中心/保罗·萨巴蒂尔大学）；University of Warwick（华威大学）；University of Zurich（苏黎世大学）
We report ALMA Band 6 continuum observations of 2000 AU resolution toward four massive molecular clouds in the Central Molecular Zone of the Galaxy. To study gas fragmentation, we use the dendrogram method to identify cores as traced by the dust continuum emission. The four clouds exhibit different fragmentation states at the observed resolution despite having similar masses at the cloud scale ($\sim$1--5 pc). Assuming a constant dust temperature of 20 K, we construct core mass functions of the clouds and find a slightly top-heavy shape as compared to the canonical initial mass function, but w…
The surroundings of massive protostars constitute an accretion disc which has numerically been shown to be subject to fragmentation and responsible for luminous accretion-driven outbursts. Moreover, it is suspected to produce close binary companions which will later strongly influence the star's future evolution in the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram. We present three-dimensional gravitation-radiation-hydrodynamic numerical simulations of 100 Mo pre-stellar cores. We find that accretion discs of young massive stars violently fragment without preventing the (highly variable) accretion of gaseous clu…
We present a sample of 151 massive ($M_* > 10^{10}\mathrm{M_\odot}$) quiescent galaxies at $2 < z < 5$, based on a sophisticated Bayesian spectral energy distribution fitting analysis of the CANDELS UDS and GOODS-South fields. Our sample includes a robust sub-sample of 61 objects for which we confidently exclude low-redshift and star-forming solutions. We identify 10 robust objects at $z>3$, of which 2 are at $z>4$. We report formation redshifts, demonstrating that the oldest objects formed at $z > 6$, however individual ages from our photometric data have significant uncertainties, typically …
On the propensity of the formation of massive clumps via fragmentation of driven shells
早期型大质量恒星驱动着薄而致密的外壳，其边缘经常显示出恒星形成的证据。这些壳的碎片，导致形成假定的恒星形成团块的可能性检查与援助的半解析参数。我们还推导出一个质量谱凝块出这些壳通过执行蒙特卡罗模拟的问题。通过扩展我们以前的工作薄，致密壳的稳定性的结果，我们认为，过去由其他作者估计的团块质量，在一组简化的假设下，比这里计算的小几个数量级。利用激波约束壳体中增长最快的不稳定模式的表达式，我们证明了典型壳体的碎裂可以产生具有典型质量$\gtrsim 10^{3}$ M $_{\odot}$的团块。这些团块很可能会产生第二代大质量和/或中等质量的恒星，从而引发下一个恒星形成周期。我们认为，壳厚与半径的比值随时间的变化很弱。计算了从B1到O 5的七种光谱类型的恒星。我们单独考虑超新星遗迹的稳定性。
We present ALMA high spatial resolution observations towards two star forming regions located in one of the most extreme zones of star formation in the Galaxy, the Carina Nebula. One region is located at the center of the nebula and is severally affected by the stellar feedback from high-mass stars, while the other region is located further south and is less disturbed by the massive star clusters. We found that the region at the center of the nebula is forming less but more massive cores than the region located in the south, suggesting that the level of stellar feedback effectively influence t…
SiO excitation from dense shocks in the earliest stages of massive star formation
分子外流是吸积的直接结果，因此它们代表了对高质量恒星形成早期阶段仍然知之甚少的吸积过程的最佳示踪剂之一。以前的研究表明，SiO丰度随着大质量年轻恒星天体的演化而减少，这可能是因为喷流活动的衰减，正如在低质量恒星形成区所看到的那样。利用APEX望远镜观测了年轻大质量天体的SiO（8-7）和CO（4-3）谱线，研究了它们的激发条件及其在流出流中的丰度。通过非LTE分析，我们发现SiO的激发条件随着发射气体的速度而增加。我们还通过在高速下的SiO和CO积分强度计算了SiO的丰度。在我们的样品中的源，我们发现没有显着的变化的SiO丰度与演化的辐射热光度质量比之间的4和50 $L_\odot/M_\odot$。我们还发现SiO（8-7）的光度随辐射热光度质量比的增加而增加。我们推测，这可能是由于SiO示踪的气体密度增加。我们发现，由SiO观测约束的密度需要使用的冲击模型，其中包括颗粒-颗粒处理。第一次，这样的模型进行了比较，发现是兼容的SiO观测。从这些比较中可以全面推断出冲击前的密度为$10^5\, $ cm $^{-3}$。在我们的样本中的SiO观察到相应的速度色散的对象调用的速度高于25公里秒$^{-1}$的冲击。我们的冲击模型与观测结果的比较表明，溅射的含硅材料（对应于小于10%的总硅丰度）从晶粒地幔发生。
We investigate the formation and early evolution and fragmentation of an accretion disk around a forming massive protostar. We use a grid-based self-gravity-radiation-hydrodynamics code including a sub-grid module for stellar and dust evolution. On purpose, we do not use sink particles to allow for all paths of fragment formation and destruction, but instead keeping the spatial grid resolution high enough to properly resolve the physical length scales of the problem. We use a 3D grid in spherical coordinates with a logarithmic scaling in the radial direction and cosine scaling in the polar dir…
Recent high-resolution simulations demonstrate that disks around primordial protostars easily fragment in the accretion phase before the protostars accrete less than a solar mass. To understand why the gravitational instability generally causes the fragmentation so early, we develop a one-dimensional (1D) non-steady model of the circumstellar disk that takes the mass supply from an accretion envelope into account. We also compare the model results to a three-dimensional (3D) numerical simulation performed with a code employing the adaptive mesh refinement. Our model shows that the self-gravita…
Theoretical and numerical works indicate that a strong magnetic field should suppress fragmentation in dense cores. However, this has never been tested observationally in a relatively large sample of fragmenting massive dense cores. Here we use the polarization data obtained in the Submillimeter Array Legacy Survey of Zhang et al. to build a sample of 18 massive dense cores where both fragmentation and magnetic field properties are studied in a uniform way. We measured the fragmentation level, Nmm, within the field of view common to all regions, of 0.15 pc, with a mass sensitivity of about 0.5…
Tracing Evolution in Massive Protostellar Objects (TEMPO) -- I: Fragmentation and emission properties of massive star-forming clumps in a luminosity limited ALMA sample
Fragmentation of massive dense molecular clouds is the starting point in the formation of rich clusters and massive stars. Theory and numerical simulations indicate that the population of the fragments (number, mass, diameter, separation) resulting from the gravitational collapse of such clumps is probably regulated by the balance between the magnetic field and the other competitors of self-gravity, in particular turbulence and protostellar feedback. We have observed 11 massive, dense and young star-forming clumps with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) in the thermal dust continuum emi…
The infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) G11.11$-$0.12 and G28.34$+$0.06 are two of the best-studied IRDCs in our Galaxy. These two clouds host clumps at different stages of evolution, including a massive dense clump in both clouds that is dark even at 70 and 100$μ$m. Such seemingly quiescent massive dense clumps have been speculated to harbor cores that are precursors of high-mass stars and clusters. We observed these two "prestellar" regions at 1mm with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) with the aim of characterizing the nature of such cores. We show that the clumps fragment into several low- to high-ma…
Little is known about how high-mass stars form. Around 30\% of the young high-mass stars in the Galaxy are observed at the edges of ionized (HII) regions. Therefore these are places of choice to study the earliest stages of high-mass star formation, especially towards the most massive condensations. High-spatial resolution observations in the millimeter range might reveal how these stars form and how they assemble their mass. We want to study the fragmentation process down to the 0.01~pc scale in the most massive condensation observed at the south-western edge of the HII region RCW~120 where t…
The fragmentation properties of massive star-forming regions in 30Dor-10 at 2000 au resolution
INAF-Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali (INAF-IAPS)（意大利国家天体物理研究所）；AURA for ESA, Space Telescope Science Institute（欧洲空间天文研究协会/太空望远镜科学研究所）；Observatorio Astronómico Nacional (IGN)（西班牙国家天文台）；University of Virginia（弗吉尼亚大学）；National Radio Astronomy Observatory（美国国家射电天文台）；University of Illinois（伊利诺伊大学）；Università di Roma Tor Vergata（罗马托尔维加塔大学）；Universitat Heidelberg（海德堡大学）；Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics（哈佛-史密森尼天体物理中心）
The fragmentation of a molecular cloud that leads to the formation of high-mass stars occurs on a hierarchy of different spatial scales. The large molecular clouds harbour massive molecular clumps with massive cores embedded in them. The fragmentation of these cores may determine the initial mass function and the masses of the final stars. Therefore, studying the fragmentation processes in the cores is crucial to understand how massive stars form. The hot molecular core G34-MM1, embedded in IRDC G34.34+00.24 located at a distance of 3.6 kpc, is a promising object to study both the fragmentatio…
Similar to their low-mass counterparts, massive stars likely form via the collapse of pre-stellar molecular cores. Recent observations suggest that most massive cores are subvirial (i.e., not supported by turbulence) and therefore are likely unstable to gravitational collapse. Here we perform radiation hydrodynamic simulations to follow the collapse of turbulent massive pre-stellar cores with subvirial and virialized initial conditions to explore how their dynamic state affects the formation of massive stars and core fragmentation into companion stars. We find that subvirial cores undergo rapi…
We have performed cosmological hydrodynamic simulations to study the effect of fragmentation on the SMBH seed mass in the direct collapse formation scenario. We considered different background UV intensities, host halo spin, and halo merger histories. Our simulations in low-spin halos, in the presence of a strong UV background are consistent with the Direct Collapse Black Hole model, in which a single massive object $\sim10^5$ M$_{\odot}$ is formed in the center of a proto-galaxy. While in our simulations under the presence of a low UV background, we find fragmentation and the formation of var…
We perform a set of cosmological simulations of early structure formation with incorporating baryonic streaming motions. We present a case where a significantly elongated gas cloud with $\sim\!10^4\,$solar masses (${\rm M_\odot}$) is formed in a pre-galactic ($\sim\!10^7\,{\rm M_\odot}$) dark halo. The gas streaming into the halo compresses and heats the massive filamentary cloud to a temperature of $\sim\!10,000\,$Kelvin. The gas cloud cools rapidly by atomic hydrogen cooling, and then by molecular hydrogen cooling down to $\sim\!400\,$Kelvin. The rapid decrease of the temperature and hence o…
We use the Illustris-1 simulation to explore the capabilities of the $\textit{Hubble}$ and $\textit{James Webb Space Telescope}$ data to analyze the stellar populations in high-redshift galaxies, taking advantage of the combined depth, spatial resolution, and wavelength coverage. For that purpose, we use simulated broad-band ACS, WFC3 and NIRCam data and 2-dimensional stellar population synthesis (2D-SPS) to derive the integrated star formation history (SFH) of massive (M$_{\ast}>10^{10}\,$M$_{\odot}$) simulated galaxies at $1<z<4$ that evolve into a local M$_{\ast}>10^{11}\,$M$_{\odot}$ galax…
Herschel surveys of Galactic clouds support a paradigm for low-mass star formation in which dense filaments play a crucial role. The detailed fragmentation properties of star-forming filaments remain poorly understood, however, and the validity of the filament paradigm in the high-mass regime is still unclear. To investigate the density/velocity structure of the filament in the high-mass star-forming region NGC6334, we conducted ALMA observations in the 3mm continuum and the N2H+(1-0) line at ~3arcsec resolution. The filament was detected in both tracers. We identified 26 cores at 3mm and 5 ve…
We present new 3-mm continuum and molecular lines observations from the ATOMS survey towards the massive protostellar clump, MM1, located in the filamentary infrared dark cloud (IRDC), G034.43+00.24 (G34). The lines observed are the tracers of either dense gas (e.g. HCO+/H13CO+ J = 1-0) or outflows (e.g. CS J = 2-1). The most complete picture to date of seven cores in MM1 is revealed by dust continuum emission. These cores are found to be gravitationally bound, with virial parameter, $α_{vir}<2$. At least four outflows are identified in MM1 with a total outflowing mass of $\sim 45 M_\odot$, an…
Fragmentation and mass segregation in the massive dense cores of Cygnus X
我们目前的Plateau de Bure干涉仪观测获得的连续在1.3和3.5毫米对6个最大规模和年轻的（IR安静）密集的核心在天鹅座X。位于只有1.7千秒差距，天鹅座X区域提供了达到足够小的尺度（1.3毫米的1700天文单位的数量级）的机会，以分离单个塌陷物体。核心被亚碎片化，5个核心内总共有23个碎片。只有最紧凑的核心，CygX-N63，实际上可能是一个单一的大质量原恒星，其包络质量高达60 Msun。其他核心中的碎片的大小和间距与附近原星团中的低质量恒星前和原恒星凝聚相似，并且可能具有相同的性质。在这23个原恒星天体中，有9个可能是OB星的前身，其包层质量从6到23 Msun不等。碎片化的水平是全球高于湍流调节，单片崩溃的情况下，但并不像预期的那样高，在一个纯粹的重力湍流的情况下，质量分布是由低质量的原恒星/恒星。在这里，在高质量碎片中的总核心质量的分数分别在CygX-N12、CygX-N53和CygX-N63中达到高达28%、44%和100%的值，远高于IMF类质量分布所预测的值。碎裂效率的增加作为密度的函数在核心中提出的是由于自重力导致引力坍缩在致密的核心的规模的重要性越来越大。与此同时，核心往往会在其中心区域分裂成几个巨大的原恒星。因此，我们可能在这里目睹了形成中的团簇的原始质量分离。
A stochastic model of fragmentation of molecular clouds has been developed for studying the resulting Initial Mass Function (IMF) where the number of fragments, inter-occurrence time of fragmentation, masses and velocities of the fragments are random variables. Here two turbulent patterns of the velocities of the fragments have been considered, namely, Gaussian and Gamma distributions. It is found that for Gaussian distribution of the turbulent velocity, the IMFs are shallower in general compared to Salpeter mass function. On the contrary, a skewed distribution for turbulent velocity leads to …
We present new continuum and molecular line data from the ALMA Three-millimeter Observations of Massive Star-forming regions (ATOMS) survey for the two protoclusters, G12.42+0.50 and G19.88-0.53. The 3 mm continuum maps reveal seven cores in each of the two globally contracting protoclusters. These cores satisfy the radius-mass relation and the surface mass density criteria for high-mass star formation. Similar to their natal clumps, the virial analysis of the cores suggests that they are undergoing gravitational collapse ($\rm α_{vir} << 2$). The clump to core scale fragmentation is investiga…
Context: Around 30 per cent of the observed exoplanets that orbit M dwarf stars are gas giants that are more massive than Jupiter. These planets are prime candidates for formation by disc instability. Aims: We want to determine the conditions for disc fragmentation around M dwarfs and the properties of the planets that are formed by disc instability. Methods: We performed hydrodynamic simulations of M dwarf protostellar discs in order to determine the minimum disc mass required for gravitational fragmentation to occur. Different stellar masses, disc radii, and metallicities were considered. Th…
It is known that massive stars form as result of the fragmentation of molecular clumps. However, what is not clear is whether this fragmentation gives rise to cores massive enough to form directly high-mass stars, or leads to cores of low and intermediate mass that generate massive stars acquiring material from their environment. Detailed studies towards clumps at early stages of star formation are needed to collect observational evidence that shed light on this issue. The infrared-quiet massive clump AGAL G035.1330-00.7450, located at a distance of 2.1 kpc, is a promising object to study both…
Massive clumps tend to fragment into clusters of cores and condensations, some of which form high-mass stars. In this work, we study the structure of massive clumps at different scales, analyze the fragmentation process, and investigate the possibility that star formation is triggered by nearby HII regions. We present a high angular resolution study of a sample of 8 massive proto-cluster clumps. Combining infrared data, we use few-arcsecond resolution radio- and millimeter interferometric data to study their fragmentation and evolution. Our sample is unique in the sense that all the clumps hav…
