arXiv subjects

Brian Svoboda

Publications and source records attributed to Brian Svoboda.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Deuteration of Organic Molecules as a Probe of Starless Core and Filament Evolution in Barnard 10

The deuterium fractionation of molecules in starless cores is sensitive to their dynamical histories, which recent magnetohydrodynamical simulations have shown to be extremely varied. The deuterated isotopologues of formaldehyde (H$_2$CO) and methanol (CH$_3$OH) probe deuterium fractionation in simple organic molecules. This complete survey targets 11 low-mass starless cores in the small, quiescent Barnard 10 (B10) region of the Taurus Molecular Cloud. The cores were observed using the 12m Arizona Radio Observatory telescope with a 100% detection rate in transitions of o/pH$_2$CO, HDCO, pD$_2$CO, A/E-CH$_3$OH, and CH$_2$DOH and the dense gas tracer N$_2$H$^+$. The HDCO and pD$_2$CO column densities and deuterium fractions are not correlated with those of the grain-surface deuteration tracer CH$_2$DOH, indicating significant gas-phase formation of deuterated formaldehyde. The observed deuterium fractions do not correlate with evolutionary indicators (e.g. core central density) or physical conditions (e.g. core mass). We also find that cores within the northwestern filament have lower deuterium fractions than cores of similar densities in the other two filaments. These could indicate differential core evolution both between and within entire filaments. Comparing the deuterium fractions of the B10 sample to published sources across different evolutionary stages suggests the inheritance of D$_2$CO from starless cores, although more surveys of organic deuteration are needed to conclusively determine inheritance.

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arXiv2025

Turbulent Pressure Heats Gas and Suppresses Star Formation in Galactic Bar Molecular Clouds

The Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Milky Way is fed by gas inflows from the Galactic disk along almost radial trajectories aligned with the major axis of the Galactic bar. However, despite being fundamental to all processes in the nucleus of the galaxy, these inflows have been studied significantly less than the CMZ itself. We present observations of various molecular lines between 215 and 230 GHz for 20 clouds with $|\ell| < 10^\circ$, which are candidates for clouds in the Galactic bar due to their warm temperatures and broad lines relative to typical Galactic disk clouds, using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) Atacama Compact Array (ACA). We measure gas temperatures, shocks, star formation rates, turbulent Mach numbers, and masses for these clouds. Although some clouds may be in the Galactic disk despite their atypical properties, nine clouds are likely associated with regions in the Galactic bar, and in these clouds, turbulent pressure is suppressing star formation. In clouds with no detected star formation, turbulence is the dominant heating mechanism, whereas photo-electric processes heat the star-forming clouds. We find that the ammonia (NH$_3$) and formaldehyde (H$_2$CO) temperatures probe different gas components, and in general each transition appears to trace different molecular gas phases within the clouds. We also measure the CO-to-H$_2$ X-factor in the bar to be an order of magnitude lower than the typical Galactic value. These observations provide evidence that molecular clouds achieve CMZ-like properties before reaching the CMZ

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arXiv2024

FAUST XIX. D$_2$CO in the outflow cavities of NGC\,1333 IRAS\,4A: recovering the physical structure of its original prestellar core

Molecular deuteration is a powerful diagnostic tool for probing the physical conditions and chemical processes in astrophysical environments. In this work, we focus on formaldehyde deuteration in the protobinary system NGC\,1333 IRAS\,4A, located in the Perseus molecular cloud. Using high-resolution ($\sim$\,100\,au) ALMA observations, we investigate the [D$_2$CO]/[HDCO] ratio along the cavity walls of the outflows emanating from IRAS\,4A1. Our analysis reveals a consistent decrease in the deuteration ratio (from $\sim$\,60-20\% to $\sim$\,10\%) with increasing distance from the protostar (from $\sim$\,2000\,au to $\sim$\,4000\,au). Given the large measured [D$_2$CO]/[HDCO], both HDCO and D$_2$CO are likely injected by the shocks along the cavity walls into the gas-phase from the dust mantles, formed in the previous prestellar phase. We propose that the observed [D$_2$CO]/[HDCO] decrease is due to the density profile of the prestellar core from which NGC\,1333 IRAS\,4A was born. When considering the chemical processes at the base of formaldehyde deuteration, the IRAS\,4A's prestellar precursor had a predominantly flat density profile within 3000\,au and a decrease of density beyond this radius.

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arXiv2023

CMZoom IV. Incipient High-Mass Star Formation Throughout the Central Molecular Zone

In this work, we constrain the star-forming properties of all possible sites of incipient high-mass star formation in the Milky Way's Galactic Center. We identify dense structures using the CMZoom 1.3mm dust continuum catalog of objects with typical radii of $\sim$0.1pc, and measure their association with tracers of high-mass star formation. We incorporate compact emission at 8, 21, 24, 25, and 70um from MSX, Spitzer, Herschel, and SOFIA, catalogued young stellar objects, and water and methanol masers to characterize each source. We find an incipient star formation rate (SFR) for the CMZ of ~0.08 Msun yr^{-1} over the next few 10^5 yr. We calculate upper and lower limits on the CMZ's incipient SFR of ~0.45 Msun yr^{-1} and ~0.05 Msun yr^{-1} respectively, spanning between roughly equal to and several times greater than other estimates of CMZ's recent SFR. Despite substantial uncertainties, our results suggest the incipient SFR in the CMZ may be higher than previously estimated. We find that the prevalence of star formation tracers does not correlate with source volume density, but instead ~75% of high-mass star formation is found in regions above a column density ratio (N_{SMA}/N_{Herschel}) of ~1.5. Finally, we highlight the detection of ``atoll sources'', a reoccurring morphology of cold dust encircling evolved infrared sources, possibly representing HII regions in the process of destroying their envelopes.

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arXiv2023

FAUST X: Formaldehyde in the Protobinary System [BHB2007] 11: Small Scale Deuteration

Context. Deuterium in H-bearing species is enhanced during the early stages of star formation, however, only a small number of high spatial resolution deuteration studies exist towards protostellar objects, leaving the small-scale structures unrevealed and understudied. Aims. We aim to constrain the deuterium fractionation ratios in a Class 0/I protostellar object in formaldehyde (H2CO), which has abundant deuterated isotopologues in this environment. Methods. We observed the Class 0/I protobinary system [BHB2007] 11, whose emission components are embedded in circumstellar disks that have radii of 2-3 au, using ALMA within the context of the Large Program FAUST. The system is surrounded by a complex filamentary structure connecting to the larger circumbinary disk. In this work we present the first study of formaldehyde D-fractionation towards this source with detections of H2CO 3(0,3)-2(0,2), combined with HDCO 4(2,2)-3(2,1), HDCO 4(1,4)-3(1,3) and D2CO 4(0,4)-3(0,3). These observations enable multiple velocity components associated with the methanol hotspots also uncovered by FAUST data, as well as the external envelope, to be resolved. In addition, based on the kinematics seen in the observations of the H2CO emission, we propose the presence of a second large scale outflow. Results. HDCO and D2CO are only found in the central regions of the core while H2CO is found more ubiquitously. From radiative transfer modelling, the column densities ranges found for H2CO, HDCO and D2CO are (3-8)x10$^{14}$ cm$^{-2}$, (0.8-2.9)x10$^{13}$ cm$^{-2}$ and (2.6-4.3)x10$^{12}$ cm$^{-2}$, respectively, yielding an average D/H ratio of 0.01-0.04. Following the results of kinematic modelling, the second large scale feature is inconsistent with a streamer-like nature and we thus tentatively conclude that the feature is an asymmetric molecular outflow launched by a wide-angle disk wind.

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arXiv2023

3D Radiative Transfer Modelling and Virial Analysis of Starless Cores in the B10 Region of the Taurus Molecular Cloud

Low-mass stars like our Sun begin their evolution within cold (10 K) and dense ($\sim 10^5$ cm$^{-3}$) cores of gas and dust. The physical structure of starless cores is best probed by thermal emission of dust grains. We present a high resolution dust continuum study of the starless cores in the B10 region of the Taurus Molecular Cloud. New observations at 1.2mm and 2.0mm ($12^{"}$ and $18^{"}$ resolution) with the NIKA2 instrument on the IRAM 30m have probed the inner regions of 14 low-mass starless cores. We perform sophisticated 3D radiative transfer modelling for each of these cores through the radiative transfer framework $\textit{pandora}$, which utilizes RADMC-3D. Model best-fits constrain each cores' central density, density slope, aspect ratio, opacity, and interstellar radiation field strength. These `typical' cores in B10 span central densities from $5 \times 10^4 - 1 \times 10^6$ cm$^{-3}$, with a mean value of $2.6 \times 10^5$ cm$^{-3}$. We find the dust opacity laws assumed in the 3D modelling, as well as the estimates from $\textit{Herschel}$, have dust emissivity indices, $β$'s, on the lower end of the distribution constrained directly from the NIKA2 maps, which averages to $β= 2.01\pm0.48$. From our 3D density structures and archival NH$_3$ data, we perform a self-consistent virial analysis to assess each core's stability. Ignoring magnetic field contributions, we find 9 out of the 14 cores ($64\%$) are either in virial equilibrium or are bound by gravity and external pressure. To push the bounded cores back to equilibrium, an effective magnetic field difference of only $\sim 15 μ$G is needed.

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arXiv2022

Chemical and Physical Characterization of the Isolated Protostellar Source CB68: FAUST. IV

Chemical diversity of low-mass protostellar sources has so far been recognized, and environmental effects are invoked as its origin. In this context, observations of isolated protostellar sources without influences of nearby objects are of particular importance. Here, we report chemical and physical structures of the low-mass Class 0 protostellar source IRAS 16544$-$1604 in the Bok globule CB68, based on 1.3 mm ALMA observations at a spatial resolution of $\sim$70~au that were conducted as part of the large program FAUST. Three interstellar saturated complex organic molecules (iCOMs), CH$_3$OH, HCOOCH$_3$, and CH$_3$OCH$_3$, are detected toward the protostar. The rotation temperature and the emitting region size for CH$_3$OH are derived to be $131\pm11$~K and $\sim$10~au, respectively. The detection of iCOMs in close proximity to the protostar indicates that CB68 harbors a hot corino. The kinematic structure of the C$^{18}$O, CH$_3$OH, and OCS lines is explained by an infalling-rotating envelope model, and the protostellar mass and the radius of the centrifugal barrier are estimated to be $0.08-0.30$~$M_\odot$ and $< 30$ au, respectively. The small radius of the centrifugal barrier seems to be related to the small emitting region of iCOMs. In addition, we detect emission lines of c-C$_3$H$_2$ and CCH associated with the protostar, revealing a warm carbon chain chemistry (WCCC) on a 1000~au scale. We therefore find that the chemical structure of CB68 is described by a hybrid chemistry. The molecular abundances are discussed in comparison with those in other hot corino sources and reported chemical models.

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arXiv2022

FAUST III. Misaligned rotations of the envelope, outflow, and disks in the multiple protostellar system of VLA 1623$-$2417

We report a study of the low-mass Class-0 multiple system VLA 1623AB in the Ophiuchus star-forming region, using H$^{13}$CO$^+$ ($J=3-2$), CS ($J=5-4$), and CCH ($N=3-2$) lines as part of the ALMA Large Program FAUST. The analysis of the velocity fields revealed the rotation motion in the envelope and the velocity gradients in the outflows (about 2000 au down to 50 au). We further investigated the rotation of the circum-binary VLA 1623A disk as well as the VLA 1623B disk. We found that the minor axis of the circum-binary disk of VLA 1623A is misaligned by about 12 degrees with respect to the large-scale outflow and the rotation axis of the envelope. In contrast, the minor axis of the circum-binary disk is parallel to the large-scale magnetic field according to previous dust polarization observations, suggesting that the misalignment may be caused by the different directions of the envelope rotation and the magnetic field. If the velocity gradient of the outflow is caused by rotation, the outflow has a constant angular momentum and the launching radius is estimated to be $5-16$ au, although it cannot be ruled out that the velocity gradient is driven by entrainments of the two high-velocity outflows. Furthermore, we detected for the first time a velocity gradient associated with rotation toward the VLA 16293B disk. The velocity gradient is opposite to the one from the large-scale envelope, outflow, and circum-binary disk. The origin of its opposite gradient is also discussed.

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arXiv2021

FAUST II. Discovery of a Secondary Outflow in IRAS 15398-3359: Variability in Outflow Direction during the Earliest Stage of Star Formation?

We have observed the very low-mass Class 0 protostar IRAS 15398-3359 at scales ranging from 50 au to 1800 au, as part of the ALMA Large Program FAUST. We uncover a linear feature, visible in H2CO, SO, and C18O line emission, which extends from the source along a direction almost perpendicular to the known active outflow. Molecular line emission from H2CO, SO, SiO, and CH3OH further reveals an arc-like structure connected to the outer end of the linear feature and separated from the protostar, IRAS 15398-3359, by 1200 au. The arc-like structure is blue-shifted with respect to the systemic velocity. A velocity gradient of 1.2 km/s over 1200 au along the linear feature seen in the H2CO emission connects the protostar and the arc-like structure kinematically. SO, SiO, and CH3OH are known to trace shocks, and we interpret the arc-like structure as a relic shock region produced by an outflow previously launched by IRAS 15398-3359. The velocity gradient along the linear structure can be explained as relic outflow motion. The origins of the newly observed arc-like structure and extended linear feature are discussed in relation to turbulent motions within the protostellar core and episodic accretion events during the earliest stage of protostellar evolution.

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arXiv2020

The MUSTANG-2 Galactic Plane Survey (MGPS90) pilot

We report the results of a pilot program for a Green Bank Telescope (GBT) MUSTANG Galactic Plane survey at 3 mm (90 GHz), MGPS90. The survey achieves a typical $1σ$ depth of $1-2$ mJy beam$^{-1}$ with a 9" beam. We describe the survey parameters, quality assessment process, cataloging, and comparison with other data sets. We have identified 709 sources over seven observed fields selecting some of the most prominent millimeter-bright regions between $0°< \ell < 50°$ (total area $\approx 7.5 °^2$). The majority of these sources have counterparts at other wavelengths. By applying flux selection criteria to these sources, we successfully recovered several known hypercompact HII (HCHII) regions, but did not confirm any new ones. We identify 126 sources that have mm-wavelength counterparts but do not have cm-wavelength counterparts and are therefore candidate HCHII regions; of these, 10 are morphologically compact and are strong candidates for new HCHII regions. Given the limited number of candidates in the extended area in this survey compared to the relatively large numbers seen in protoclusters W51 and W49, it appears that most HCHII regions exist within dense protoclusters. Comparing the counts of HCHII to ultracompact HII (UCHII) regions, we infer the HCHII region lifetime is 16-46% that of the UCHII region lifetime. We additionally separated the 3 mm emission into dust and free-free emission by comparing with archival 870 $μ$m and 20 cm data. In the selected pilot fields, most ($\gtrsim80$%) of the 3 mm emission comes from plasma, either through free-free or synchrotron emission.

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arXiv2018

Thermal balance and comparison of gas and dust properties of dense clumps in the Hi-GAL survey

We present a comparative study of physical properties derived from gas and dust emission in a sample of 1068 dense Galactic clumps. The sources are selected from the crossmatch of the Hi-GAL survey with 16 catalogues of NH$_3$ line emission in its lowest inversion (1,1) and (2,2) transitions. The sample covers a large range in masses and bolometric luminosities, with surface densities above $Σ=0.1$ g cm$^{-2}$ and with low virial parameters $α<1$. The comparison between dust and gas properties shows an overall agreement between $T_{\textit{kin}}$ and $T_{\textit{dust}}$ at volumetric densities $n\gtrsim1.2\times10^{4}$ cm$^{-3}$, and a median fractional abundance $χ$(NH$_3$)$=1.46\times10^{-8}$. While the protostellar clumps in the sample have small differences between $T_{\textit{kin}}$ and $T_{\textit{dust}}$, prestellar clumps have a median ratio $T_{\textit{kin}}/T_{\textit{dust}}=1.24$, suggesting that these sources are thermally decoupled. A correlation is found between the evolutionary tracer $L/M$ and the parameters $T_{\textit{kin}}/T_{\textit{dust}}$ and $χ$(NH$_3$) in prestellar sources and protostellar clumps with $L/M<1$ L$_\odot$ M$_\odot^{-1}$. In addition, a weak correlation is found between non-thermal velocity dispersion and the $L/M$ parameter, possibly indicating an increase of turbulence with protostellar evolution in the interior of clumps. Finally, different processes are discussed to explain the differences between gas and dust temperatures in prestellar candidates, and the origin of non-thermal motions observed in the clumps.

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arXiv2018

Searching for Inflow Towards Massive Starless Clump Candidates Identified in the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey

Recent Galactic plane surveys of dust continuum emission at long wavelengths have identified a population of dense, massive clumps with no evidence for on-going star formation. These massive starless clump candidates are excellent sites to search for the initial phases of massive star formation before the feedback from massive star formation effects the clump. In this study, we search for the spectroscopic signature of inflowing gas toward starless clumps, some of which are massive enough to form a massive star. We observed 101 starless clump candidates identified in the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) in HCO+ J = 1-0 using the 12m Arizona Radio Observatory telescope. We find a small blue excess of E = (Nblue - Nred)/Ntotal = 0.03 for the complete survey. We identified 6 clumps that are good candidates for inflow motion and used a radiative transfer model to calculate mass inflow rates that range from 500 - 2000 M /Myr. If the observed line profiles are indeed due to large-scale inflow motions, then these clumps will typically double their mass on a free fall time. Our survey finds that massive BGPS starless clump candidates with inflow signatures in HCO+ J = 1-0 are rare throughout our Galaxy.

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arXiv2017

The Lifetimes of Phases in High-Mass Star-Forming Regions

High-mass stars form within star clusters from dense, molecular regions, but is the process of cluster formation slow and hydrostatic or quick and dynamic? We link the physical properties of high-mass star-forming regions with their evolutionary stage in a systematic way, using Herschel and Spitzer data. In order to produce a robust estimate of the relative lifetimes of these regions, we compare the fraction of dense, molecular regions above a column density associated with high-mass star formation, N(H2) > 0.4-2.5 x 10^22 cm^-2, in the 'starless (no signature of stars > 10 Msun forming) and star-forming phases in a 2x2 degree region of the Galactic Plane centered at l=30deg. Of regions capable of forming high-mass stars on ~1 pc scales, the starless (or embedded beyond detection) phase occupies about 60-70% of the dense, molecular region lifetime and the star-forming phase occupies about 30-40%. These relative lifetimes are robust over a wide range of thresholds. We outline a method by which relative lifetimes can be anchored to absolute lifetimes from large-scale surveys of methanol masers and UCHII regions. A simplistic application of this method estimates the absolute lifetimes of the starless phase to be 0.2-1.7 Myr (about 0.6-4.1 fiducial cloud free-fall times) and the star-forming phase to be 0.1-0.7 Myr (about 0.4-2.4 free-fall times), but these are highly uncertain. This work uniquely investigates the star-forming nature of high-column density gas pixel-by-pixel and our results demonstrate that the majority of high-column density gas is in a starless or embedded phase.

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arXiv2014

The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey. XII. Distance Catalog Expansion Using Kinematic Isolation of Dense Molecular Cloud Structures With 13CO(1-0)

We present an expanded distance catalog for 1,710 molecular cloud structures identified in the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) version 2, representing a nearly threefold increase over the previous BGPS distance catalog. We additionally present a new method for incorporating extant data sets into our Bayesian distance probability density function (DPDF) methodology. To augment the dense-gas tracers (e.g., HCO+(3-2), NH3(1,1)) used to derive line-of-sight velocities for kinematic distances, we utilize the Galactic Ring Survey 13CO(1-0) data to morphologically extract velocities for BGPS sources. The outline of a BGPS source is used to select a region of the GRS 13CO data, along with a reference region to subtract enveloping diffuse emission, to produce a line profile of 13CO matched to the BGPS source. For objects with a HCO+(3-2) velocity, \approx 95% of the new 13CO(1-0) velocities agree with that of the dense gas. A new prior DPDF for kinematic distance ambiguity (KDA) resolution, based on a validated formalism for associating molecular cloud structures with known objects from the literature, is presented. We demonstrate this prior using catalogs of masers with trigonometric parallaxes and HII regions with robust KDA resolutions. The distance catalog presented here contains well-constrained distance estimates for 20% of BGPS V2 sources, with typical distance uncertainties \lesssim 0.5 kpc. Approximately 75% of the well-constrained sources lie within 6 kpc of the Sun, concentrated in the Scutum-Centarus arm. Galactocentric positions of objects additionally trace out portions of the Sagittarius, Perseus, and Outer arms in the first and second Galactic quadrants, and we also find evidence for significant regions of interarm dense gas.

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arXiv2013

The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey. X. A Complete Spectroscopic Catalog of Dense Molecular Gas Observed toward 1.1 mm Dust Continuum Sources with 7.5 <= l <= 194 degrees

The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) is a 1.1 mm continuum survey of dense clumps of dust throughout the Galaxy covering 170 square degrees. We present spectroscopic observations using the Heinrich Hertz Submillimeter Telescope of the dense gas tracers, HCO+ and N2H+ 3-2, for all 6194 sources in the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey v1.0.1 catalog between 7.5 <= l <= 194 degrees. This is the largest targeted spectroscopic survey of dense molecular gas in the Milky Way to date. We find unique velocities for 3126 (50.5%) of the BGPS v1.0.1 sources observed. Strong N2H+ 3-2 emission (T_{mb} > 0.5 K) without HCO+ 3-2 emission does not occur in this catalog. We characterize the properties of the dense molecular gas emission toward the entire sample. HCO+ is very sub-thermally populated and the 3-2 transitions are optically thick toward most BGPS clumps. The median observed line width is 3.3 km/s consistent with supersonic turbulence within BGPS clumps. We find strong correlations between dense molecular gas integrated intensities and 1.1 mm peak flux and the gas kinetic temperature derived from previously published NH3 observations. These intensity correlations are driven by the sensitivity of the 3-2 transitions to excitation conditions rather than by variations in molecular column density or abundance. We identify a subset of 113 sources with stronger N2H+ than HCO+ integrated intensity, but we find no correlations between the N2H+ / HCO+ ratio and 1.1 mm continuum flux density, gas kinetic temperature, or line width. Self-absorbed profiles are rare (1.3%).

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