Cluster formation in the W40 and Serpens South complex triggered by the expanding HII region
Tomomi Shimoikura, Kazuhito Dobashi, Fumitaka Nakamura, Yoshito Shimajiri, Koji Sugitani
备注：
18 figures, accepted for publication in PASJ (the special issue of the Nobeyama FOREST receiver, "Nobeyama 45m Telescope: Legacy Projects and Receiver FOREST")
We present results of the mapping observations covering a large area of 1 square degree around W40 and Serpens South carried out in the 12CO (J=1-0), 13CO (J=1-0), C18O (J=1-0), CCS (J_{N}=8_{7}-7_{6}), and N_2H+ (J=1-0) emission lines with the 45 m Nobeyama Radio Telescope. W40 is a blistered Hii region, and Serpens South is an infrared dark cloud accompanied by a young cluster. The relationship between these two regions which are separated by ~20' on the sky has not been clear so far. We found that the C18O emission is distributed smoothly throughout the W40 and Serpens South regions, and it seems that the two regions are physically connected. We divided the C18O emission into four groups in terms of the spatial distributions around the HII region which we call 5, 6, 7, and 8 km s^{-1} components according to their typical LSR velocities, and propose a three-dimensional model of the W40 and Serpens South complex. We found two elliptical structures in position-velocity diagrams, which can be explained as a part of two expanding shells. One of the shells is the small inner shell just around the HII region, and the other is the large outer shell corresponding to the boundary of the HII region. Dense gas associated with the young cluster of Serpens South is likely to be located at the surface of the outer shell, indicating that the natal clump of the young cluster is interacting with the outer shell being compressed by the expansion of the shell. We suggest that the expansion of the shell induced the formation of the young cluster.
Using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), we have conducted a survey for 22 GHz, 6_{1,6}-5_{2,3} H2O masers toward the Serpens South region. The masers were also observed with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) following the VLA detections. We detect for the first time H2O masers in the Serpens South region that are found to be associated to three Class 0-Class I objects, including the two brightest protostars in the Serpens South cluster, known as CARMA-6 and CARMA-7. We also detect H2O masers associated to a source with no outflow or jet features. We suggest that this source is most …
We present CFHT photometry and IRTF spectroscopy of low-mass candidate members of Serpens South and Serpens Core ($\sim$430 pc, $\sim$0.5 Myr), identified using a novel combination of photometric filters, known as the W-band method. We report SC182952+011618, SS182959-020335 and SS183032-021028 as young, low-mass Serpens candidate members, with spectral types in the range M7-M8, M5-L0 and M5-M6.5 respectively. Best-fit effective temperatures and luminosities imply masses of $<$ 0.12M$_{\odot}$ for all three candidate cluster members. We also present Hubble Space Telescope imaging data (F127M, …
One puzzle in understanding how stars form in clusters is the source of mass -- is all of the mass in place before the first stars are born, or is there an extended period when the cluster accretes material which can continuously fuel the star formation process? We use a multi-line spectral survey of the southern filament associated with the Serpens South embedded cluster-forming region in order to determine if mass is accreting from the filament onto the cluster, and whether the accretion rate is significant. Our analysis suggests that material is flowing along the filament's long axis at a r…
Active star forming regions are excellent laboratories for studying the origins and evolution of young stellar object (YSO) clustering. The W40 - Serpens South region is such a region, and we compile a super near-and-mid-infrared catalog of point sources in it, based on deep NIR observations of CFHT in combination with 2MASS, UKIDSS, and Spitzer catalogs. From this catalog, we identify 832 YSOs, and classify 15, 135, 647, and 35 of them to be the deeply embedded sources, Class I, Class II YSOs, and transition disk sources, respectively. In general, these YSOs are well correlated with the filam…
We report Shanghai Tian Ma Radio Telescope detections of several long carbon-chain molecules at C and Ku band, including HC3N, HC5N, HC7N, HC9N, C3S, C6H and C8H toward the starless cloud Serpens South 1a. We detected some transitions (HC9N J=13-12 F=12-11 and F=14-13, H13CCCN J=2-1 F=1-0 and F=1-1, HC13CCN J=2-1 F=2-2, F=1-0 and F=1-1, HCC13CN J=2-1 F=1-0 and F=1-1) and resolved some hyperfine components (HC5N J=6-5 F=5-4, H13CCCN J=2-1 F=2-1) for the first time in the interstellar medium. The column densities of these carbon-chain molecules in a range of 10^{12}-10^{13} cm^{-2} are comparabl…
We present the N2H+(J=1-0) map of the Serpens South molecular cloud obtained as part of the CARMA Large Area Star Formation Survey (CLASSy). The observations cover 250 square arcminutes and fully sample structures from 3000 AU to 3 pc with a velocity resolution of 0.16 km/s, and they can be used to constrain the origin and evolution of molecular cloud filaments. The spatial distribution of the N2H+ emission is characterized by long filaments that resemble those observed in the dust continuum emission by Herschel. However, the gas filaments are typically narrower such that, in some cases, two o…
We present Gaia-DR2 astrometry of a sample of YSO candidates in Ophiuchus, Serpens Main and Serpens South/W40 in the Aquila Rift, which had been mainly identified by their infrared excess with Spitzer. We compare the Gaia-DR2 parallaxes against published and new parallaxes obtained from our Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) program GOBELINS. We obtain consistent results between Gaia and the VLBA for the mean parallaxes in each of the regions analyzed here. We see small offsets, when comparing mean values, of a few tens of micro-arcseconds in the parallaxes, which are either introduced by the Gai…
Given its relative proximity (~430 pc), compact size (< 20'), young age (~ 0.5 Myr) and rich number of young stellar objects, the Serpens-South star forming region is a promising site for studying young sub-stellar objects, yet the low-mass members of this region remain largely undiscovered. In this paper we report on a deep photometric survey using a custom 1.45 um filter (W-band), as well as standard J and H near-IR filters, in order to identify candidate low-mass young brown-dwarfs in the Serpens-South region. We constructed a reddening-insensitive index (Q) by combining J, H and W-band pho…
Molecular outflows driven by protostellar cluster members likely impact their surroundings and contribute to turbulence, affecting subsequent star formation. The very young Serpens South cluster consists of a particularly high density and fraction of protostars, yielding a relevant case study for protostellar outflows and their impact on the cluster environment. We combined CO $J=1-0$ observations of this region using the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA) and the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique (IRAM) 30 m single dish telescope. The combined map allows …
Young stellar clusters are believed to inherit the spatial distribution like hierarchical structures of their natal molecular cloud during their formation. However, the change of the structures between the cloud and the young clusters is not well constrained observationally. We select the W40 - Serpens South region (~ 7 $\times$ 9 pc$^{2}$) of the Aquila Rift as a testbed and investigate hierarchical properties of spatial distribution of young stellar objects (YSOs) in this region. We develop a minimum spanning tree (MST)-based method to group stars into several levels by successively cutting …
We present the results of N$_2$H$^+$ ($J=1-0$) observations toward Serpens South, the nearest cluster-forming, infrared dark cloud. The physical quantities are derived by fitting the hyperfine structure of N$_2$H$^+$. The Herschel and 1.1-mm continuum maps show that a pc-scale filament fragments into three clumps with radii of $0.1-0.2$ pc and masses of $40-230M_\odot$. We find that the clumps contain smaller-scale ($\sim 0.04$ pc) structures, i.e., dense cores. We identify 70 cores by applying CLUMPFIND to the N$_2$H$^+$ data cube. In the central cluster-forming clump, the excitation temperat…
We aimed to map the jets and outflows from the Serpens South star forming region and find an empirical relationship between the magnetic field and outflow orientation. Near-infrared H2 v=1-0 S(1) 2.122μm -line imaging of the \sim 30'-long filamentary shaped Serpens South star forming region was carried out. K s broadband imaging of the same region was used for continuum subraction. Candidate driving sources of the mapped jets/outflows are identified from the list of known protostars and young stars in this region, which was derived from studies using recent Spitzer and Herschel telescope obser…
The Serpens South infrared dark cloud consists of several filamentary ridges, some of which fragment into dense clumps. On the basis of CCS ($J_N=4_3-3_2$), HC$_3$N ($J=5-4$), N$_2$H$^+$ ($J=1-0$), and SiO ($J=2-1, v=0$) observations, we investigated the kinematics and chemical evolution of these filamentary ridges. We find that CCS is extremely abundant along the main filament in the protocluster clump. We emphasize that Serpens South is the first cluster-forming region where extremely-strong CCS emission is detected. The CCS-to-N$_2$H$^+$ abundance ratio is estimated to be about 0.5 toward t…
We present the results of CO ($J=3-2$) and HCO$^+$ ($J=4-3$) mapping observations toward a nearby embedded cluster, Serpens South, using the ASTE 10 m telescope. Our CO ($J=3-2$) map reveals that many outflows are crowded in the dense cluster-forming clump that can be recognized as a HCO$^+$ clump with a size of $\sim$ 0.2 pc and mass of $\sim$ 80 M$_\odot$. The clump contains several subfragments with sizes of $\sim$ 0.05 pc. By comparing the CO ($J=3-2$) map with the 1.1 mm dust continuum image taken by AzTEC on ASTE, we find that the spatial extents of the outflow lobes are sometimes anti-c…
We present maps in several molecular emission lines of a 1 square-degree region covering the W40 and Serpens South molecular clouds belonging to the Aquila Rift complex. The observations were made with the 45 m telescope at the Nobeyama Radio Observatory. We found that the $^{12}$CO and $^{13}$CO emission lines consist of several velocity components with different spatial distributions. The component that forms the main cloud of W40 and Serpens South, which we call the "main component", has a velocity of $V_{\rm LSR}\simeq 7$ km s$^{-1}$. There is another significant component at $V_{\rm LSR}\…
We present a Chandra study of the deeply embedded Serpens South star-forming region, examining cluster structure and disk properties at the earliest stages. In total, 152 X-ray sources are detected. Combined with Spitzer and 2MASS photometry, 66 X-ray sources are reliably matched to an IR counterpart. We identify 21 class I, 6 flat spectrum, 16 class II, and 18 class III young stars; 5 were unclassified. Eighteen sources were variable in X-rays, 8 exhibiting flare-like emission, and one periodic source. The cluster X-ray luminosity distance was estimated, the best match was to the nearer dista…
We present deep radio continuum observations of the star-forming core of the Serpens South Infrared Dark Cloud with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). Observations were conducted in two bands centered at 7.25 GHz (4.14 cm) and 4.75 GHz (6.31 cm) with an rms of 8.5 and 11.1 microJy/beam, respectively. We also use 2MASS, Spitzer and Herschel data to put our radio observations in the context of young stellar populations characterized by near and far infrared observations. Within a 5 arcmin x 5 arcmin region of interest around the central cluster, we detect roughly eighteen radio sources, …
The Serpens South embedded cluster, which is located at the constricted part in a long filamentary infrared dark cloud, is believed to be in very early stage of cluster formation. We present results of near-infrared (JHKs) polarization observations toward the filamentary cloud. Our polarization measurements of near-infrared point sources indicate a well-ordered global magnetic field that is perpendicular to the main filament, implying that the magnetic field is likely to have controlled the formation of the main filament. On the other hand, the sub-filaments, which converge on the central part…
The infrared young stellar outflow source MHO 3252 Y3 in the Serpens South star-forming region was found to be variable. The available photometric data can be fitted with a double peaked light curve of 904 d period. Color variations are consistent with variable extinction with a flatter wavelength dependence than interstellar extinction, i.e., larger grains. MHO 3252 Y3 is the source of a large scale bipolar outflow, but the most recent outflow activity has produced a microjet detectable in the shock excited H_2 1--0 S(1) line while [FeII] emission appears confined to the immediate vicinity of…
Aims: We investigated the masses and spatial distributions of pre-stellar and protostellar candidates in the young, low-mass star forming region Serpens South, where active star formation is known to occur along a predominant filamentary structure. Previous observations used to study these distributions have been limited by two important observational factors: (1) sensitivity limits that leave the lowest-mass sources undetected, or (2) resolution limits that cannot distinguish binaries and/or cluster members in close proximity. Methods: Recent millimeter-wavelength interferometry observations …
We report on new distances and proper motions to seven stars across the Serpens/Aquila complex. The observations were obtained as part of the Gould's Belt Distances Survey (GOBELINS) project between September 2013 and April 2016 with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). One of our targets is the proto-Herbig AeBe object EC 95, which is a binary system embedded in the Serpens Core. For this system, we combined the GOBELINS observations with previous VLBA data to cover a total period of ~8 years, and derive the orbital elements and an updated source distance. The individual distances to sources …
The Serpens Molecular Cloud is one of the most active star-forming regions within 500 pc, with over one thousand of YSOs at different evolutionary stages. The ages of the member stars inform us about the star formation history of the cloud. In this paper, we develop a spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting method for nearby evolved (diskless) young stars from members of the Pleiades to estimate their ages, with a temperature scale adopted from APOGEE spectra. When compared with literature temperatures of selected YSOs in Orion, the SED fits to cool (<5000 K) stars have temperatures that di…
The loss of mass from protostars, in the form of a jet or outflow, is a necessary counterpart to protostellar mass accretion. Outflow ejection events probably vary in their velocity and/or in the rate of mass loss. Such `episodic' ejection events have been observed during the Class 0 protostellar phase (the early accretion stage), and continue during the subsequent class I phase that marks the first one million years of star formation. Previously observed episodic-ejection sources were relatively isolated; however, the most common sites of star formation are clusters. Outflows link protostars …
Atomic ionised regions with strong continuum emission are often associated with regions of high-mass star formation and low-frequency (<2GHz) observations of these regions are needed to help build star formation models. The region toward the Vela Supernova Remnant is particularly interesting as it is a complex structure of recent supernova explosions and molecular clouds containing a number of HII regions that are not well characterised. We searched publicly available catalogues for HII regions, both candidate and identified, which also have low-frequency emission. In the area of ~400 square d…
We present H13CO+ (J=1-0) and HNC (J=1-0) maps of regions in Serpens South, Serpens Main and NGC 1333 containing filaments. We also observe the Serpens regions using H13CN (J=1-0). These dense gas tracer molecular line observations carried out with CARMA have an angular resolution of ~7", a spectral resolution of ~0.16 km/s and a sensitivity of 50-100 mJy/beam. Although the large scale structure compares well with the Herschel dust continuum maps, we resolve finer structure within the filaments identified by Herschel. The H13CO+ emission distribution agrees with the existing CARMA N2H+ (J=1-0)…
We report on diffraction-limited observations in the far-infrared and sub- millimeter of the Cluster B region of Serpens (G3-G6 Cluster) and of the Herbig Be star to the south, VV Ser. The observations were made with the Spitzer MIPS instrument in fine-scale mode at 70um, in normal mapping mode at 160um (VV Ser only), and the CSO SHARC-II camera at 350um (Cluster B only). We use these data to define the spectral energy distributions of the tightly grouped members of Cluster B, many of whose SEDs peak in the far-infrared. We compare our results to those of the c2d survey of Serpens and to publi…
We present deep ($\sim 17~μ$Jy) radio continuum observations of the Serpens molecular cloud, the Serpens south cluster, and the W40 region obtained using the Very Large Array in its A configuration. We detect a total of 146 sources, 29 of which are young stellar objects (YSOs), 2 are BV stars and 5 more are associated with phenomena related to YSOs. Based on their radio variability and spectral index, we propose that about 16 of the remaining 110 unclassified sources are also YSOs. For approximately 65% of the known YSOs detected here as radio sources, the emission is most likely non-thermal, …
We present observations of the H-alpha, H-beta, [SII] 6716, 6731 and [NII] 6583 emission lines in the galactic HII region Sh2-235 with the Mapper of Narrow Galaxy Lines (MaNGaL), a tunable filter at the 1-m telescope of Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences. We show that the HII region is obscured by neutral material with AV = 2-4 mag. The area with the highest AV is situated to the south-west from the ionizing star and coincides with a maximum detected electron density of >=300 cm(-3). The combination of these results with archive AKARI far-infrared data allows …
Protostellar outflows have been shown theoretically to be capable of maintaining supersonic turbulence in cluster-forming clumps and keeping the star formation rate per free-fall time as low as a few percent. We aim to test two basic predictions of this outflow-regulated cluster formation model, namely (1) the clump should be close to virial equilibrium and (2) the turbulence dissipation rate should be balanced by the outflow momentum injection rate, using recent outflow surveys toward 8 nearby cluster-forming clumps (B59, L1551, L1641N, Serpens Main Cloud, Serpens South, $ρ$ Oph, IC 348, and …
We present our second set of results from our mid-infrared imaging survey of Milky Way Giant HII regions. We used the FORCAST instrument on the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy to obtain 20 and 37$μ$m images of the central ~10'X10' area of M17. We investigate the small- and large-scale properties of M17 using our data in conjunction with previous multi-wavelength observations. The spectral energy distributions of individual compact sources were constructed with Spitzer-IRAC, SOFIA-FORCAST, and Herschel-PACS photometry data and fitted with massive young stellar object (MYSO) mod…
We present SCUBA-2 450micron and 850micron observations of the Serpens MWC 297 region, part of the JCMT Gould Belt Survey of nearby star-forming regions. Simulations suggest that radiative feedback influences the star-formation process and we investigate observational evidence for this by constructing temperature maps. Maps are derived from the ratio of SCUBA-2 fluxes and a two component model of the JCMT beam for a fixed dust opacity spectral index of beta = 1.8. Within 40 of the B1.5Ve Herbig star MWC 297, the submillimetre fluxes are contaminated by free-free emission with a spectral index …
We investigated the star formation activities in the AFGL333 region, which is in the vicinity of the W4 expanding bubble, by conducting NH3 (1,1), (2,2), and (3,3) mapping observations with the 45 m Nobeyama Radio Telescope at an angular resolution of 75". The morphology of the NH3 (1,1) map shows a bow-shape structure with the size of 2.0 x 0.6 pc as seen in the dust continuum. At the interface between the W4 bubble and the dense NH3 cloud, the compact HII region G134.2+0.8, associated with IRAS02245+6115, is located. Interestingly, just north and south of G134.2+0.8 we found NH3 emission exh…
The discovery of several clusters of red supergiants towards l=24-30 deg has triggered interest in this area of the Galactic plane, where lines of sight are very complex and previous explorations of the stellar content were very preliminary. We attempt to characterise the stellar population associated with the HII region RCW173 (Sh2-60), located at l=25.3 deg, as previous studies have suggested that this population could be beyond the Sagittarius arm. We obtained UBV photometry of a stellar field to the south of the brightest part of RCW173, as well as spectroscopy of about twenty stars in the…
In recent works, through observations of molecular lines, we found that the supernova remnant (SNR) G18.8+0.3 is interacting with a molecular cloud towards its southern edge. Also it has been proven the presence of several neighboring HII regions very likely located at the same distance as the remnant. The presence of dense molecular gas and the existence of shock fronts generated by the SNR and HII regions make this region an interesting scenario to study the population of young stellar objects. Thus, using the most modern colour criteria applied to the emission in the mid-infrared bands obta…
We carried out an optical polarimetric study in the direction of the RCW95 star forming region in order to probe the sky-projected magnetic field structure by using the distribution of linear polarization segments which seem to be well aligned with the more extended cloud component. A mean polarization angle of $θ=49.8^o\pm7.7^o$ was derived. Through the spectral dependence analysis of polarization it was possible to obtain the total-to-selective extinction ratio ($R_V$) by fitting the Serkowski function, resulting in a mean value of $R_V=2.93\pm0.47$. The foreground polarization component was…
Radio observations at metre-centimetre wavelengths shed light on the nature of the emission of HII regions. Usually this category of objects is dominated by thermal radiation produced by ionised hydrogen, namely protons and electrons. However, a number of observational studies have revealed the existence of HII regions with a mixture of thermal and non-thermal radiation. The latter represents a clue as to the presence of relativistic electrons. However, neither the interstellar cosmic-ray electron flux nor the flux of secondary electrons, produced by primary cosmic rays through ionisation proc…
We observed the giant HII region around the NGC 3603 YC with the 5 broad bands (70, 160, 250, 350, 500 micron) of the SPIRE and PACS instruments, on-board the Herschel Space Observatory. Together with what is currently known of the stellar, atomic, molecular and warm dust components, this additional and crucial information should allow us to better understand the details of the star formation history in this region. The main objective of the investigation is to study, at high spatial resolution, the distribution and main physical characteristics of the cold dust. By reconstructing the temperat…
The HII region IC 1848 harbors a lot of intricate elephant trunk-like structures that look morphologically different from usual bright-rimmed clouds (BRCs). Of particular interest is a concentration of thin and long elephant trunk-like structures in the southeastern part of IC 1848E. Some of them have an apparently associated star (or two stars) at their very tip. We conducted $VI_{c}$ photometry of several of these stars. Their positions on the $V/(V-I_{c})$ color-magnitude diagram as well as the physical parameters obtained by SED fittings indicate that they are low-mass pre-main-sequence st…
(abridged) We used the Chandra observatory to perform a deep (70 ksec) X-ray observation of the Gum 31 region and detected 679 X-ray point sources. This extends and complements the X-ray survey of the central Carina nebula regions performed in the Chandra Carina Complex Project. Using deep near-infrared images from our recent VISTA survey of the Carina nebula complex, our Spitzer point-source catalog, and optical archive data, we identify counterparts for 75% of these X-ray sources. Their spatial distribution shows two major concentrations, the central cluster NGC 3324 and a partly embedded cl…
