Primordial Mass and Density Segregation in a Young Molecular Cloud

Abstract

We analyse the geometry of the Pipe Nebula, drawn by the distribution ($Q$-spatial parameter) and hierarchy ($Λ$ spatial segregation) of column density peaks previously detected and catalogued. By analysing the mass and volume density of the cores, we determine that both variables shown to be spatially segregated and with a high degree of substructure. Given the early evolutionary state of the Pipe Nebula, our results suggest that both, mass and volume-density segregations, may be primordial, in the sense of appearing in the early phases of the chain of physical mechanisms which conform the cluster-formation process. We also propose that volume density, and not mass, is the parameter that most clearly determines the initial spatial distribution of pre-stellar cores.