The Orion A molecular cloud is one of the most well-studied nearby star-forming regions, and includes regions of both highly clustered and more dispersed star formation across its full extent. Here, we analyze dense, star-forming cores identified in the 850 μm and 450 μm SCUBA-2 maps from the JCMT Gould Belt Legacy Survey. We identify dense cores in a uniform manner across the Orion A cloud and analyze their clustering properties. Using two independent lines of analysis, we find evidence that clusters of dense cores tend to be mass segregated, suggesting that stellar clusters may have some amount of primordial mass segregation already imprinted in them at an early stage. We also demonstrate that the dense core clusters have a tendency to be elongated, perhaps indicating a formation mechanism linked to the filamentary structure within molecular clouds.
Using JCMT Gould Belt Survey data from CO J=3-2 isotopologues, we present a meta-analysis of the outflows and energetics of star-forming regions in several Gould Belt clouds. The majority of the regions are strongly gravitationally bound. There is evidence that molecular outflows transport large quantities of momentum and energy. Outflow energies are at least 20 per cent of the total turbulent kinetic energies in all of the regions studied and greater than the turbulent energy in half of the regions. However, we find no evidence that outflows increase levels of turbulence, and there is no corr…
We present observations of NGC1333 from SCUBA-2 on JCMT, observed as a JCMT Gould Belt Survey pilot project during the shared risk campaign when the first of four arrays was installed at each of 450 and 850 microns. Temperature maps are derived from 450 micron and 850 micron ratios under the assumption of constant dust opacity spectral index beta=1.8. Temperatures indicate that the dust in the northern (IRAS 6/8) region of NGC1333 is hot, 20-40 K, due to heating by the B star SVS3, other young stars in the IR/optically visible cluster, and embedded protostars. Other luminous protostars are als…
The JCMT Gould Belt Legacy Survey obtained SCUBA-2 observations of dense cores within three sub-regions of Orion B: LDN 1622, NGC 2023/2024, and NGC 2068/2071, all of which contain clusters of cores. We present an analysis of the clustering properties of these cores, including the two-point correlation function and Cartwright's Q parameter. We identify individual clusters of dense cores across all three regions using a minimal spanning tree technique, and find that in each cluster, the most massive cores tend to be centrally located. We also apply the independent M-Sigma technique and find a s…
Investigating variability at the earliest stages of low-mass star formation is fundamental in understanding how a protostar assembles mass. While many simulations of protostellar disks predict non-steady accretion onto protostars, deeper investigation requires robust observational constraints on the frequency and amplitude of variability events characterised across the observable SED. In this study, we develop methods to robustly analyse repeated observations of an area of the sky for submillimetre variability in order to determine constraints on the magnitude and frequency of deeply embedded …
We present a subset of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope Gould Belt Survey's "first-look" results of the southern extent of the Orion A molecular cloud. Employing a two-step structure identification process, we constructed individual catalogues for large-scale regions of significant emission labeled as "islands" and smaller-scale subregions called "fragments" using the 850 $μ$m continuum maps obtained using the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array 2 (SCUBA-2). We highlight the relationship between the concentration and Jeans stability for regions of significant emission and present the re…
We present the results of the Gould's Belt Distances Survey (GOBELINS) of young star forming regions towards the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. We detected 36 YSOs with the Very Large Baseline Array (VLBA), 27 of which have been observed in at least 3 epochs over the course of 2 years. At least half of these YSOs belong to multiple systems. We obtained parallax and proper motions towards these stars to study the structure and kinematics of the Complex. We measured a distance of 388$\pm$5 pc towards the Orion Nebula Cluster, 428$\pm$10 pc towards the southern portion L1641, 388$\pm$10 pc toward…
The Gould Belt Legacy Survey (GBS) on the JCMT has observed a region of 260 square arcminutes in 12CO J=3--2 emission, and a 190 square arcminute subset of this in 13CO and C18O towards the Serpens molecular cloud. We examine the global velocity structure of the non-outflowing gas, and calculate excitation temperatures and opacities. The large scale mass and energetics of the region are evaluated, with special consideration for high velocity gas. We find the cloud to have a mass of 203 solar masses, and to be gravitationally bound, and that the kinetic energy of the outflowing gas is approxima…
Radiative feedback can influence subsequent star formation. We quantify the heating from OB stars in the local star-forming regions in the JCMT Gould Belt survey. Dust temperatures are calculated from 450/850 micron flux ratios from SCUBA-2 observations at the JCMT assuming a fixed dust opacity spectral index $β=1.8$. Mean dust temperatures are calculated for each submillimetre clump along with projected distances from the main OB star in the region. Temperature vs. distance is fit with a simple model of dust heating by the OB star radiation plus the interstellar radiation field and dust cooli…
We present SCUBA-2 450μm and 850μm observations of the W40 complex in the Serpens-Aquila region as part of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) Gould Belt Survey (GBS) of nearby star-forming regions. We investigate radiative heating by constructing temperature maps from the ratio of SCUBA-2 fluxes using a fixed dust opacity spectral index, β = 1.8, and a beam convolution kernel to achieve a common 14.8" resolution. We identify 82 clumps ranging between 10 and 36K with a mean temperature of 20{\pm}3K. Clump temperature is strongly correlated with proximity to the external OB association and…
We present Herschel observations from the Herschel Gould Belt Survey and SCUBA-2 science verification observations from the JCMT Gould Belt Survey of the B1 clump in the Perseus molecular cloud. We determined the dust emissivity index using four different techniques to combine the Herschel PACS+SPIRE data at 160 - 500 microns with the SCUBA-2 data at 450 microns and 850 microns. Of our four techniques, we found the most robust method was to filter-out the large-scale emission in the Herschel bands to match the spatial scales recovered by the SCUBA-2 reduction pipeline. Using this method, we fi…
The dust emissivity spectral index, $β$, is a critical parameter for deriving the mass and temperature of star-forming structures, and consequently their gravitational stability. The $β$ value is dependent on various dust grain properties, such as size, porosity, and surface composition, and is expected to vary as dust grains evolve. Here we present $β$, dust temperature, and optical depth maps of the star-forming clumps in the Perseus Molecular Cloud determined from fitting SEDs to combined Herschel and JCMT observations in the 160 $μ$m, 250 $μ$m, 350 $μ$m, 500 $μ$m, and 850 $μ$m bands. Most …
The Gould Belt Legacy Survey will survey nearby star-forming regions (within 500 pc), using HARP (Heterodyne Array Receiver Programme), SCUBA-2 (Submillimetre Common- User Bolometer Array 2) and POL-2 (Polarimeter 2) on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). This paper describes the initial data obtained using HARP to observe 12CO, 13CO and C18O J = 3 - 2 towards two regions in Orion B, NGC 2024 and NGC 2071. We describe the physical characteristics of the two clouds, calculating temperatures and opacities utilizing all three isotopologues. We find good agreement between temperatures calcul…
We present 450 and 850 micron submillimetre continuum observations of the IC5146 star-forming region taken as part of the JCMT Gould Belt Survey. We investigate the location of bright submillimetre (clumped) emission with the larger-scale molecular cloud through comparison with extinction maps, and find that these denser structures correlate with higher cloud column density. Ninety-six individual submillimetre clumps are identified using FellWalker and their physical properties are examined. These clumps are found to be relatively massive, ranging from 0.5to 116 MSun with a mean mass of 8 MSun…
We present the JCMT Gould Belt Survey's first look results of the southern extent of the Orion A Molecular Cloud ($δ\leq -5\mathrm{:}31\mathrm{:}27.5$). Employing a two-step structure identification process, we construct individual catalogues for large-scale regions of significant emission labelled as islands and smaller-scale subregions called fragments using the 850 $μ$m continuum maps obtained using SCUBA-2. We calculate object masses, sizes, column densities, and concentrations. We discuss fragmentation in terms of a Jeans instability analysis and highlight interesting structures as candid…
Thermal emission from cold dust grains in giant molecular clouds can be used to probe the physical properties, such as density, temperature and emissivity in star-forming regions. We present the SCUBA-2 shared-risk observations at 450 $μ$m and 850 $μ$m of the Orion A molecular cloud complex taken at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). Previous studies showed that molecular emission lines can contribute significantly to the measured fluxes in those continuum bands. We use the HARP $^{12}$CO J=3-2 integrated intensity map for Orion A in order to evaluate the molecular line contamination an…
The JCMT Gould Belt Survey was one of the first Legacy Surveys with the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii, mapping 47 square degrees of nearby (< 500 pc) molecular clouds in both dust continuum emission at 850 $μ$m and 450 $μ$m, as well as a more-limited area in lines of various CO isotopologues. While molecular clouds and the material that forms stars have structures on many size scales, their larger-scale structures are difficult to observe reliably in the submillimetre regime using ground-based facilities. In this paper, we quantify the extent to which three subsequent data-reduction …
We present a first look at the SCUBA-2 observations of three sub-regions of the Orion B molecular cloud: LDN 1622, NGC 2023/2024, and NGC 2068/2071, from the JCMT Gould Belt Legacy Survey. We identify 29, 564, and 322 dense cores in L1622, NGC 2023/2024, and NGC 2068/2071 respectively, using the SCUBA-2 850 micron map, and present their basic properties, including their peak fluxes, total fluxes, and sizes, and an estimate of the corresponding 450 micron peak fluxes and total fluxes, using the FellWalker source extraction algorithm. Assuming a constant temperature of 20 K, the starless dense c…
We present 850$μ$m and 450$μ$m data from the JCMT Gould Belt Survey obtained with SCUBA-2 and characterise the dust attributes of Class I, Class II and Class III disk sources in L1495. We detect 23% of the sample at both wavelengths, with the detection rate decreasing through the Classes from I--III. The median disk mask is 1.6$\times 10^{-3}$M$_{\odot}$, and only 7% of Class II sources have disk masses larger than 20 Jupiter masses. We detect a higher proportion of disks towards sources with stellar hosts of spectral type K than spectral type M. Class II disks with single stellar hosts of spe…
Based on masers with measured trigonometric parallaxes, we have redetermined the spatial orientation parameters of the Local (Orion) arm. Using 23 sources (the Gould Belt objects were excluded), we have found that their spatial distribution can be approximated by a very narrow ellipsoid elongated in the direction L_1=77.1+/-2.9^o whose symmetry plane is inclined to the Galactic plane at an angle of 5.6+/-0.2^o. The longitude of the ascending node of the symmetry plane is l_Ω=70+/-3^o. A new estimate for the pitch angle of the Local spiral arm has been obtained by an independent method: i=12.9+…
The JCMT Gould Belt Survey: First results from the Corona Australis molecular cloud and evidence of variable dust emissivity indices in the Coronet region
We present observations of the Cepheus Flare obtained as part of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) Gould Belt Legacy Survey (GBLS) with the SCUBA-2 instrument. We produce a catalogue of sources found by SCUBA-2, and separate these into starless cores and protostars. We determine masses and densities for each of our sources, using source temperatures determined by the Herschel Gould Belt Survey. We compare the properties of starless cores in four different molecular clouds: L1147/58, L1172/74, L1251 and L1228. We find that the core mass functions for each region typically show shallower-…
The Gould Belt Legacy Survey will map star-forming regions within 500 pc, using HARP (Heterodyne Array Receiver Programme), SCUBA-2 (Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array 2) and POL-2 (Polarimeter 2) on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). This paper describes HARP observations of the J = 3-2 transitions of 13CO and C18O towards Orion A. The 1500-resolution observations cover 5 pc of the Orion filament, including OMC1 (inc. BN-KL and Orion Bar), OMC 2/3 and OMC 4, and allow a comparative study of the molecular gas properties throughout the star-forming cloud. The filament shows a velo…
We present a comparison of SCUBA-2 850-$μ$m and Herschel 70--500-$μ$m observations of the L1495 filament in the Taurus Molecular Cloud with the goal of characterising the SCUBA-2 Gould Belt Survey (GBS) data set. We identify and characterise starless cores in three data sets: SCUBA-2 850-$μ$m, Herschel 250-$μ$m, and Herschel 250-$μ$m spatially filtered to mimic the SCUBA-2 data. SCUBA-2 detects only the highest-surface-brightness sources, principally detecting protostellar sources and starless cores embedded in filaments, while Herschel is sensitive to most of the cloud structure, including ex…
We present a detailed study of the Orion B clouds (d~400 pc), imaged with the PACS/SPIRE cameras at 70-500 $μ$m by the Herschel Gould Belt survey (HGBS). We release new high-res. maps of column density and dust temperature. In the filamentary sub-regions NGC2023/2024, NGC2068/2071, and L1622, 1768 starless dense cores were identified, ~28-45% of which are self-gravitating prestellar cores. A total of 76 protostellar dense cores were also found. The typical lifetime of the prestellar cores was found to be $t_{\rm pre}=1.7_{-0.6}^{+0.8}$ Myr. The prestellar core mass function (CMF) peaks at ~0.5…
We present 850 and 450 micron observations of the dense regions within the Auriga-California molecular cloud using SCUBA-2 as part of the JCMT Gould Belt Legacy Survey to identify candidate protostellar objects, measure the masses of their circumstellar material (disk and envelope), and compare the star formation to that in the Orion A molecular cloud. We identify 59 candidate protostars based on the presence of compact submillimeter emission, complementing these observations with existing Herschel/SPIRE maps. Of our candidate protostars, 24 are associated with young stellar objects (YSOs) in …
As part of a JCMT Legacy Survey of star formation in the Gould Belt, we present early science results for Taurus. CO J=3-2 maps have been secured along the north-west ridge and bowl, collectively known as L 1495, along with deep 13CO and C18O J=3-2 maps in two sub-regions. With these data we search for molecular outflows, and use the distribution of flows, HH objects and shocked H2 line emission features, together with the population of young stars, protostellar cores and starless condensations to map star formation across this extensive region. In total 21 outflows are identified. It is clear…
Photon-dominated regions (PDRs) are expected to show a layered structure in molecular abundances and emerging line emission, which is sensitive to the physical structure of the region as well as the UV radiation illuminating it. We aim to study this layering in the Orion Bar, a prototypical nearby PDR with a favorable edge-on geometry. We present new maps of 2 by 2 arcminute fields at 14-23 arcsecond resolution toward the Orion Bar in the SO 8_8-9_9, H2CO 5_(1,5)-4_(1,4), 13CO 3-2, C2H 4_(9/2)-3_(7/2) and 4_(7/2)-3_(5/2), C18O 2-1 and HCN 3-2 transitions. The data reveal a clear chemical strat…
This white paper gives a brief summary of Galactic continuum surveys with the next generation 850 micron camera at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in the next decade. This new camera will have mapping speeds at least 10-20 times faster than the present SCUBA-2 camera, and will enable deep (<10 mJy/beam) and extensive continuum surveys such as a wider (-5 deg.<l<240 deg., |b|<2-5 deg.) Galactic Plane survey, a larger Gould Belt survey, and a follow-up survey of all Planck compact objects visible from the northern hemisphere. These surveys will provide a complete census of molecular clo…
CO, $^{13}$CO and C$^{18}$O ${\it J}$ = 3--2 observations are presented of the Ophiuchus molecular cloud. The $^{13}$CO and C$^{18}$O emission is dominated by the Oph A clump, and the Oph B1, B2, C, E, F and J regions. The optically thin(ner) C$^{18}$O line is used as a column density tracer, from which the gravitational binding energy is estimated to be $4.5 \times 10^{39}$ J (2282 $M_\odot$ km$^2$ s$^{-2}$). The turbulent kinetic energy is $6.3 \times 10^{38}$ J (320 $M_\odot$ km$^2$ s$^{-2}$), or 7 times less than this, and therefore the Oph cloud as a whole is gravitationally bound. Thirty…
We determine the magnetic field strength in the OMC 1 region of the Orion A filament via a new implementation of the Chandrasekhar-Fermi method using observations performed as part of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) B-Fields In Star-Forming Region Observations (BISTRO) survey with the POL-2 instrument. We combine BISTRO data with archival SCUBA-2 and HARP observations to find a plane-of-sky magnetic field strength in OMC 1 of $B_{\rm pos}=6.6\pm4.7$ mG, where $δB_{\rm pos}=4.7$ mG represents a predominantly systematic uncertainty. We develop a new method for measuring angular dispersi…
In this paper we present the first observations of the Ophiuchus molecular cloud performed as part of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) Gould Belt Survey (GBS) with the SCUBA-2 instrument. We demonstrate methods for combining these data with previous HARP CO, Herschel, and IRAM N$_{2}$H$^{+}$ observations in order to accurately quantify the properties of the SCUBA-2 sources in Ophiuchus. We produce a catalogue of all of the sources found by SCUBA-2. We separate these into protostars and starless cores. We list all of the starless cores and perform a full virial analysis, including exter…
We present an overview of the first data release (DR1) and first-look science from the Green Bank Ammonia Survey (GAS). GAS is a Large Program at the Green Bank Telescope to map all Gould Belt star-forming regions with $A_V \gtrsim 7$ mag visible from the northern hemisphere in emission from NH$_3$ and other key molecular tracers. This first release includes the data for four regions in Gould Belt clouds: B18 in Taurus, NGC 1333 in Perseus, L1688 in Ophiuchus, and Orion A North in Orion. We compare the NH$_3$ emission to dust continuum emission from Herschel, and find that the two tracers corr…
Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations can provide the position of compact radio sources with an accuracy of order 50 micro-arcseconds. This is sufficient to measure the trigonometric parallax and proper motions of any object within 500 pc of the Sun to better than a few percent. Because they are magnetically active, young stars are often associated with compact radio emission detectable using VLBI techniques. Here we will show how VLBI observations have already constrained the distance to the most often studied nearby regions of star-formation (Taurus, Ophiuchus, Orion, etc.) a…
[Abridged] We have recently reported on the collapse and fragmentation properties of the northernmost part of this structure, located ~2.4pc north of Orion KL -- the Orion Molecular Cloud 3 (OMC 3, Takahashi et al. 2013). As part of our project to study the integral-shaped filament, we analyze the fragmentation properties of the northern OMC 1 filament. This filament is a dense structure previously identified by JCMT/SCUBA submillimeter continuum and VLA ammonia observations and shown to have fragmented into clumps. We observed OMC1 n with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) at 1.3mm and report on o…
The Integral Shaped Filament (ISF) is the nearest molecular cloud with rapid star formation, including massive stars, and it is therefore a star-formation laboratory. We use Gaia parallaxes, to show that the distances to young Class II stars ('disks') projected along the spine of this filament are related to the gas radial velocity by $$ v = -{D\overτ} + K;\qquad τ= 4\,{\rm Myr}, $$ where $K$ is a constant. This implies that the ISF is a standing wave, which is consistent with the Stutz & Gould (2016) 'Slingshot' prediction. The $τ=4\,{\rm Myr}$ timescale is consistent with the 'Slingshot' pic…
Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations can provide the position of compact radio sources with an accuracy of order 50 micro-arcseconds. This is sufficient to measure the trigonometric parallax and proper motions of any object within 500 pc of the Sun to better than a few percent. Because they are magnetically active, young stars are often associated with compact radio emission detectable using VLBI techniques. Here we will show how VLBI observations have already constrained the distance to the most often studied nearby regions of star-formation (Taurus, Ophiuchus, Orion, etc.) a…
The Orion complex is arguably the most studied star-forming region in the Galaxy. While stars are still being born in the Orion nebula, the oldest part was believed to be no more than 13 Myr old. In order to study the full hierarchy of star formation across the Orion complex, we perform a clustering analysis of the Ori OB1a region using new stellar surveys and derive robust ages for each identified stellar aggregate. We use Gaia DR2 parameters supplemented with radial velocities from the GALAH and APOGEE surveys to perform clustering of the Ori OB1a association. Five overdensities are resolved…
We perform a study of the spatial and kinematical distribution of young open clusters in the solar neighborhood, discerning between bound clusters and transient stellar condensations within our sample. Then, we discriminate between Gould Belt (GB) and local Galactic disk (LGD) members, using a previous estimate of the structural parameters of both systems obtained from a sample of O-B6 Hipparcos stars. Using this classified sample we analyze the spatial structure and the kinematic behavior of the cluster system in the GB. The two star formation regions that dominate and give the GB its charact…
Based on high-latitude molecular clouds with highly accurate distance estimates taken from the literature, we have redetermined the parameters of their spatial orientation. This system can be approximated by a 350x235x140 pc ellipsoid inclined by the angle i=17+/-2 degrees to the Galactic plane with the longitude of the ascending node lΩ=337+/-1 degrees. Based on the radial velocities of the clouds, we have found their group velocity relative to the Sun to be (u0,v0,w0) = (10.6,18.2,6.8)+/-(0.9,1.7,1.5) km/s. The trajectory of the center of the molecular cloud system in the past in a time inte…
Short-duration flares at millimeter wavelengths provide unique insights into the strongest magnetic reconnection events in stellar coronae, and combine with longer-term variability to introduce complications to next-generation cosmology surveys. We analyze 5.5 years of JCMT Transient Survey 850 micron submillimeter monitoring observations toward eight Gould Belt star-forming regions to search for evidence of transient events or long-duration variability from faint sources. The eight regions (30 arcmin diameter fields), including ~1200 infrared-selected YSOs, have been observed on average 47 ti…
Based on the 850 $μ$m dust continuum data from SCUBA-2 at James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), we compare overall properties of Planck Galactic Cold Clumps (PGCCs) in the $λ$ Orionis cloud to those of PGCCs in the Orion A and B clouds. The Orion A and B clouds are well known active star-forming regions, while the $λ$ Orionis cloud has a different environment as a consequence of the interaction with a prominent OB association and a giant Hii region. PGCCs in the $λ$ Orionis cloud have higher dust temperatures ($Td=16.13\pm0.15$ K) and lower values of dust emissivity spectral index ($ β=1.65\pm…
Using data from the SCUBA Legacy Catalogue (850 um) and Spitzer Space Telescope (3.6 - 70 um), we explore dense cores in the Ophiuchus, Taurus, Perseus, Serpens, and Orion molecular clouds. We develop a new method to discriminate submillimeter cores found by SCUBA as starless or protostellar, using point source photometry from Spitzer wide field surveys. First, we identify infrared sources with red colors associated with embedded young stellar objects (YSOs). Second, we compare the positions of these YSO-candidates to our submillimeter cores. With these identifications, we construct new, self-…
We use gas temperature and velocity dispersion data from the Green Bank Ammonia Survey and core masses and sizes from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope Gould Belt Survey to estimate the virial states of dense cores within the Orion A molecular cloud. Surprisingly, we find that almost none of the dense cores are sufficiently massive to be bound when considering only the balance between self-gravity and the thermal and non-thermal motions present in the dense gas. Including the additional pressure binding imposed by the weight of the ambient molecular cloud material and additional smaller pressu…
We compared the sizes and fluxes of a sample of protostellar disks in Orion A measured with the ALMA 0.87 mm continuum data from the VANDAM survey with the physical properties of their ambient environments on the core scale of 0.6 pc estimated with the GBT GAS NH3 and JCMT SCUPOL polarimetric data. We did not find any significant dependence of the disk radii and continuum fluxes on a single parameter on the core scale, such as the non-thermal line width, magnetic field orientation and strength, or magnitude and orientation of the velocity gradient. Among these parameters, we only found a posit…
We present observations of the Auriga-California Molecular Cloud (AMC) at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, 8.0, 24, 70 and 160 micron observed with the IRAC and MIPS detectors as part of the Spitzer Gould Belt Legacy Survey. The total mapped areas are 2.5 sq-deg with IRAC and 10.47 sq-deg with MIPS. This giant molecular cloud is one of two in the nearby Gould Belt of star-forming regions, the other being the Orion A Molecular Cloud (OMC). We compare source counts, colors and magnitudes in our observed region to a subset of the SWIRE data that was processed through our pipeline. Using color-magnitude and color-c…
We perform a virial analysis of starless dense cores in three nearby star-forming regions : L1688 in Ophiuchus, NGC 1333 in Perseus, and B18 in Taurus. Our analysis takes advantage of comprehensive kinematic information for the dense gas in all of these regions made publicly available through the Green Bank Ammonia Survey Data Release 1, which used to estimate internal support against collapse. We combine this information with ancillary data used to estimate other important properties of the cores, including continuum data from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope Gould Belt Survey for core ident…
We present combined VLA and Green Bank Telescope images of \ammonia\ inversion transitions (1,1) and (2,2) toward OMC2 and OMC3. We focus on the relatively quiescent Orion cores, which are away from the Trapezium cluster and have no sign of massive protostars nor evolved star formation, such as IRAS source, water maser, and methanol maser. The 5\arcsec\ angular resolution and $0.6 \rm{}km\,s^{-1}$ velocity resolution of these data enable us to study the thermal and dynamic state of these cores at $\sim{}0.02 \rm{}pc$ scales, comparable to or smaller than those of the current dust continuum sur…
The Orion nebula is a prime example of a massive star-forming region in our galaxy. Observations have shown that gravitational and magnetic energy are comparable in its integral shaped filament (ISF) on a scale of ~1 pc, and that the population of pre-main sequence stars appears dynamically heated compared to the protostars. These results have been attributed to a slingshot mechanism resulting from the oscillation of the filament (Stutz & Gould 2016). In this paper, we show that radially contracting filaments naturally evolve toward a state where gravitational, magnetic, and rotational energy …
Large-scale surveys of the Perseus molecular cloud have provided many clues as to the processes occurring during star formation. Here, analysis of both column density maps and kinematic data (maps and pointed data) are discussed and compared with predictions from simulations. Results include a column density threshold for the formation of dense star-forming cores and that the dense cores are quiescent within their local environment, while the molecular cloud as a whole has turbulent motions that are dominated by large-scale modes. Some of these results have already been used to constrain model…
A key parameter to the description of all star formation processes is the density structure of the gas. In this letter, we make use of probability distribution functions (PDFs) of Herschel column density maps of Orion B, Aquila, and Polaris, obtained with the Herschel Gould Belt survey (HGBS). We aim to understand which physical processes influence the PDF shape, and with which signatures. The PDFs of Orion B (Aquila) show a lognormal distribution for low column densities until Av 3 (6), and a power-law tail for high column densities, consistent with a rho r^-2 profile for the equivalent spher…
We present the Herschel Gould Belt survey maps of the L1641 molecular clouds in Orion A. We extracted both the filaments and dense cores in the region. We identified which of dense sources are proto- or pre-stellar, and studied their association with the identified filaments. We find that although most (71%) of the pre-stellar sources are located on filaments there is still a significant fraction of sources not associated with such structures. We find that these two populations (on and off the identified filaments) have distinctly different mass distributions. The mass distribution of the sour…
We present the results of simultaneous 450 $μ$m and 850 $μ$m polarization observations toward the massive star forming region NGC 2071IR, a target of the BISTRO (B-fields in Star-Forming Region Observations) Survey, using the POL-2 polarimeter and SCUBA-2 camera mounted on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. We find a pinched magnetic field morphology in the central dense core region, which could be due to a rotating toroidal disk-like structure and a bipolar outflow originating from the central young stellar object, IRS 3. Using the modified Davis-Chandrasekhar-Fermi method, we obtain a plane-…
We characterize the stellar and gas volume density, potential, and gravitational field profiles in the central $\sim$ 0.5 pc of the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC), the nearest embedded star cluster (or rather, proto-cluster) hosting massive star formation available for detailed observational scrutiny. We find that the stellar volume density is well characterized by a Plummer profile $ρ_{stars}(r) = 5755\,{\rm M}_{\odot}\,{\rm pc}^{-3}\,(1+(r/a)^2)^{-5/2}$, where $a = 0.36$ pc. The gas density follows a cylindrical power law $ρ_{gas}(R) = 25.9\,{\rm M}_{\odot}\,{\rm pc}^{-3}\,(R/{\rm pc})^{-1.775}$…
We study the three dimensional arrangement of young stars in the solar neighbourhood using the second release of the Gaia mission (Gaia DR2) and we provide a new, original view of the spatial configuration of the star forming regions within 500 pc from the Sun. By smoothing the star distribution through a gaussian filter, we construct three dimensional density maps for early-type stars (upper-main sequence, UMS) and pre-main sequence (PMS) sources. The PMS and the UMS samples are selected through a combination of photometric and astrometric criteria. A side product of the analysis is a three d…
