arXiv subjects

Cara Battersby

Publications and source records attributed to Cara Battersby.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Time-Domain Photometry of Protostars at Far-Infrared and Submillimeter Wavelengths

The majority of the ultimate main-sequence mass of a star is assembled in the protostellar phase, where a forming star is embedded in an infalling envelope and encircled by a protoplanetary disk. Studying mass accretion in protostars is thus a key to understanding how stars gain their mass and ultimately how their disks and planets form and evolve. At this early stage, the dense envelope reprocesses most of the luminosity generated by accretion to far-infrared and submillimeter wavelengths. Time-domain photometry at these wavelengths is needed to probe the physics of accretion onto protostars, but variability studies have so far been limited, in large part because of the difficulty in accessing these wavelengths from the ground. We discuss the scientific progress that would be enabled with far-infrared and submillimeter programs to probe protostellar variability in the nearest kiloparsec.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2019

Star Formation Rates of Massive Molecular Clouds in the Central Molecular Zone

We investigate star formation at very early evolutionary phases in five massive clouds in the inner 500 pc of the Galaxy, the Central Molecular Zone. Using interferometer observations of H$_2$O masers and ultra-compact H II regions, we find evidence of ongoing star formation embedded in cores of 0.2 pc scales and $\gtrsim$10$^5$ cm$^{-3}$ densities. Among the five clouds, Sgr C possesses a high (9%) fraction of gas mass in gravitationally bound and/or protostellar cores, and follows the dense ($\gtrsim$10$^4$ cm$^{-3}$) gas star formation relation that is extrapolated from nearby clouds. The other four clouds have less than 1% of their cloud masses in gravitationally bound and/or protostellar cores, and star formation rates 10 times lower than predicted by the dense gas star formation relation. At the spatial scale of these cores, the star formation efficiency is comparable to that in Galactic disk sources. We suggest that the overall inactive star formation in these Central Molecular Zone clouds could be because there is much less gas confined in gravitationally bound cores, which may be a result of the strong turbulence in this region and/or the very early evolutionary stage of the clouds when collapse has only recently started.

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arXiv2018

The Origins Space Telescope

The Origins Space Telescope, one of four large Mission Concept studies sponsored by NASA for review in the 2020 US Astrophysics Decadal Survey, will open unprecedented discovery space in the infrared, unveiling our cosmic origins. We briefly describe in this article the key science themes and architecture for OST. With a sensitivity gain of up to a factor of 1,000 over any previous or planned mission, OST will open unprecedented discovery space, allow us to peer through an infrared window teeming with possibility. OST will fundamentally change our understanding of our cosmic origins - from the growth of galaxies and black holes, to uncovering the trail of water, to life signs in nearby Earth-size planets, and discoveries never imagined. Built to be highly adaptable, while addressing key science across many areas of astrophysics, OST will usher in a new era of infrared astronomy.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2018

The Physical Properties of Large-Scale Galactic Filaments

The characterization of our Galaxy's longest filamentary gas features has been the subject of several studies in recent years, producing not only a sizeable sample of large-scale filaments, but also confusion as to whether all these features (e.g. "Bones", "Giant Molecular Filaments") are the same. They are not. We undertake the first standardized analysis of the physical properties ($\rm{H_2}\;$column densities, dust temperatures, morphologies, radial column density profiles) and kinematics of large-scale filaments in the literature. We expand and improve upon prior analyses by using the same data sets, techniques, and spiral arm models to disentangle the filaments' inherent properties from selection criteria and methodology. Our results suggest that the myriad filament finding techniques are uncovering different physical structures, with length ($11-269\,\rm\,pc$), width ($1-40\,\rm\,pc$), mass ($\rm3\times10^3\; M_\odot-1.1\times10^{6}\;M_\odot$), aspect ratio (3:1-117:1), and high column density fraction ($0.2-100\%$) varying by over an order of magnitude across the sample of 45 filaments. We develop a radial profile fitting code, $\texttt{RadFil}$, which is publicly available. We also perform a $\textit{position-position-velocity}$ ($\textit{p-p-v}$) analysis on a subsample and find that while $60-70\%$ lie spatially in the plane of the Galaxy, only $30-45\%$ concurrently exhibit spatial $\textit{and}$ kinematic proximity to spiral arms. In a parameter space defined by aspect ratio, dust temperature, and column density, we broadly distinguish three filament categories, which could indicate different formation mechanisms or histories. Highly elongated "Bone-like" filaments show the most potential for tracing gross spiral structure (e.g. arms, spurs), while other categories could be large concentrations of molecular gas (GMCs, core complexes).

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2018

Distributed star formation throughout the Galactic Center cloud Sgr B2

We report ALMA observations with resolution $\approx0.5$" at 3 mm of the extended Sgr B2 cloud in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ). We detect 271 compact sources, most of which are smaller than 5000 AU. By ruling out alternative possibilities, we conclude that these sources consist of a mix of hypercompact HII regions and young stellar objects (YSOs). Most of the newly-detected sources are YSOs with gas envelopes which, based on their luminosities, must contain objects with stellar masses $M_*\gtrsim8$ M$_\odot$. Their spatial distribution spread over a $\sim12\times3$ pc region demonstrates that Sgr B2 is experiencing an extended star formation event, not just an isolated `starburst' within the protocluster regions. Using this new sample, we examine star formation thresholds and surface density relations in Sgr B2. While all of the YSOs reside in regions of high column density ($N(H_2)\gtrsim2\times10^{23}$ cm$^{-2}$), not all regions of high column density contain YSOs. The observed column density threshold for star formation is substantially higher than that in solar vicinity clouds, implying either that high-mass star formation requires a higher column density or that any star formation threshold in the CMZ must be higher than in nearby clouds. The relation between the surface density of gas and stars is incompatible with extrapolations from local clouds, and instead stellar densities in Sgr B2 follow a linear $Σ_*-Σ_{gas}$ relation, shallower than that observed in local clouds. Together, these points suggest that a higher volume density threshold is required to explain star formation in CMZ clouds.

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arXiv2017

The Molecular Gas Environment in the 20 km s$^{-1}$ Cloud in the Central Molecular Zone

We recently reported a population of protostellar candidates in the 20 km s$^{-1}$ cloud in the Central Molecular Zone of the Milky Way, traced by H$_2$O masers in gravitationally bound dense cores. In this paper, we report high-angular-resolution ($\sim$3'') molecular line studies of the environment of star formation in this cloud. Maps of various molecular line transitions as well as the continuum at 1.3 mm are obtained using the Submillimeter Array. Five NH$_3$ inversion lines and the 1.3 cm continuum are observed with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array. The interferometric observations are complemented with single-dish data. We find that the CH$_3$OH, SO, and HNCO lines, which are usually shock tracers, are better correlated spatially with the compact dust emission from dense cores among the detected lines. These lines also show enhancement in intensities with respect to SiO intensities toward the compact dust emission, suggesting the presence of slow shocks or hot cores in these regions. We find gas temperatures of $\gtrsim$100 K at 0.1-pc scales based on RADEX modelling of the H$_2$CO and NH$_3$ lines. Although no strong correlations between temperatures and linewidths/H$_2$O maser luminosities are found, in high-angular-resolution maps we notice several candidate shock heated regions offset from any dense cores, as well as signatures of localized heating by protostars in several dense cores. Our findings suggest that at 0.1-pc scales in this cloud star formation and strong turbulence may together affect the chemistry and temperature of the molecular gas.

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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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arXiv2016

The Skeleton of the Milky Way

Recently, Goodman et al. (2014) argued that the very long, very thin infrared dark cloud "Nessie" lies directly in the Galactic mid-plane and runs along the Scutum-Centaurus arm in position-position-velocity ($p-p-v$) space as traced by lower density $\rm {CO}$ and higher density ${\rm NH}_3$ gas. Nessie was presented as the first "bone" of the Milky Way, an extraordinarily long, thin, high-contrast filament that can be used to map our Galaxy's "skeleton." Here, we present evidence for additional bones in the Milky Way Galaxy, arguing that Nessie is not a curiosity but one of several filaments that could potentially trace Galactic structure. Our ten bone candidates are all long, filamentary, mid-infrared extinction features which lie parallel to, and no more than 20 pc from, the physical Galactic mid-plane. We use $\rm {CO}$, ${\rm N}_2{\rm H}^+$, $\rm {HCO}^+$, and ${\rm NH}_3$ radial velocity data to establish the three-dimensional location of the candidates in ${\it p-p-v}$ space. Of the ten candidates, six also: have a projected aspect ratio of $\geqq$50:1; run along, or extremely close to, the Scutum-Centaurus arm in ${\it p-p-v}$ space; and exhibit no abrupt shifts in velocity. The evidence presented here suggests that these candidates are marking the locations of significant spiral features, with the bone called filament 5 ("BC_18.88-0.09") being a close analog to Nessie in the Northern Sky. As molecular spectral-line and extinction maps cover more of the sky at increasing resolution and sensitivity, it should be possible to find more bones in future studies.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

A Brief Update on the CMZoom Survey

The inner few hundred parsecs of the Milky Way, the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ), is our closest laboratory for understanding star formation in the extreme environments (hot, dense, turbulent gas) that once dominated the universe. We present an update on the first large-area survey to expose the sites of star formation across the CMZ at high-resolution in submillimeter wavelengths: the CMZoom survey with the Submillimeter Array (SMA). We identify the locations of dense cores and search for signatures of embedded star formation. CMZoom is a three-year survey in its final year and is mapping out the highest column density regions of the CMZ in dust continuum and a variety of spectral lines around 1.3 mm. CMZoom combines SMA compact and subcompact configurations with single-dish data from BGPS and the APEX telescope, achieving an angular resolution of about 4" (0.2 pc) and good image fidelity up to large spatial scales.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

Star formation rates on global and cloud scales within the Galactic Centre

The environment within the inner few hundred parsecs of the Milky Way, known as the "Central Molecular Zone" (CMZ), harbours densities and pressures orders of magnitude higher than the Galactic Disc; akin to that at the peak of cosmic star formation (Kruijssen & Longmore 2013). Previous studies have shown that current theoretical star-formation models under-predict the observed level of star-formation (SF) in the CMZ by an order of magnitude given the large reservoir of dense gas it contains. Here we explore potential reasons for this apparent dearth of star formation activity.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

Deeply Embedded Protostellar Population in the Central Molecular Zone Suggested by H$_2$O Masers and Dense Cores

The Central Molecular Zone (CMZ), usually referring to the inner 500 pc of the Galaxy, contains a dozen of massive ($\sim10^5$ $M_\odot$) molecular clouds. Are these clouds going to actively form stars like Sgr B2? How are they affected by the extreme physical conditions in the CMZ, such as strong turbulence? Here we present a first step towards answering these questions. Using high-sensitivity, high angular resolution radio and (sub)millimeter observations, we studied deeply embedded star formation in six massive clouds in the CMZ, including the 20 and 50 km s$^{-1}$ clouds, Sgr B1 off (as known as dust ridge clouds e/f), Sgr C, Sgr D, and G0.253-0.016. The VLA water maser observations suggest a population of deeply embedded protostellar candidates, many of which are new detections. The SMA 1.3 mm continuum observations reveal peaks in dust emission associated with the masers, suggesting the existence of dense cores. While our findings confirm that clouds such as G0.253-0.016 lack internal compact substructures and are quiescent in terms of star formation, two clouds (the 20 km s$^{-1}$ cloud and Sgr C) stand out with clusters of water masers with associated dense cores which may suggest a population of deeply embedded protostars at early evolutionary phases. Follow-up observations with VLA and ALMA are necessary to confirm their protostellar nature.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

Using young massive star clusters to understand star formation and feedback in high-redshift-like environments

The formation environment of stars in massive stellar clusters is similar to the environment of stars forming in galaxies at a redshift of 1 - 3, at the peak star formation rate density of the Universe. As massive clusters are still forming at the present day at a fraction of the distance to high-redshift galaxies they offer an opportunity to understand the processes controlling star formation and feedback in conditions similar to those in which most stars in the Universe formed. Here we describe a system of massive clusters and their progenitor gas clouds in the centre of the Milky Way, and outline how detailed observations of this system may be able to: (i) help answer some of the fundamental open questions in star formation and (ii) quantify how stellar feedback couples to the surrounding interstellar medium in this high-pressure, high-redshift analogue environment.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey. XIV. Physical Properties of Massive Starless and Star Forming Clumps

We sort $4683$ molecular clouds between $10^\circ< \ell <65^\circ$ from the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey based on observational diagnostics of star formation activity: compact $70$ $μ{\rm m}$ sources, mid-IR color-selected YSOs, ${\rm H_2O}$ and ${\rm CH_3OH}$ masers, and UCHII regions. We also present a combined ${\rm NH_3}$-derived gas kinetic temperature and ${\rm H_2O}$ maser catalog for $1788$ clumps from our own GBT 100m observations and from the literature. We identify a subsample of $2223$ ($47.5\%$) starless clump candidates, the largest and most robust sample identified from a blind survey to date. Distributions of flux density, flux concentration, solid angle, kinetic temperature, column density, radius, and mass show strong ($>1$ dex) progressions when sorted by star formation indicator. The median starless clump candidate is marginally sub-virial ($α\sim 0.7$) with $>75\%$ of clumps with known distance being gravitationally bound ($α< 2$). These samples show a statistically significant increase in the median clump mass of $ΔM \sim 170-370$ M$_\odot$ from the starless candidates to clumps associated with protostars. This trend could be due to (i) mass growth of the clumps at $\dot{M}\sim200-440$ Msun Myr$^{-1}$ for an average free-fall $0.8$ Myr time-scale, (ii) a systematic factor of two increase in dust opacity from starless to protostellar phases, (iii) and/or a variation in the ratio of starless to protostellar clump lifetime that scales as $\sim M^{-0.4}$. By comparing to the observed number of ${\rm CH_3OH}$ maser containing clumps we estimate the phase-lifetime of massive ($M>10^3$ M$_\odot$) starless clumps to be $0.37 \pm 0.08 \ {\rm Myr} \ (M/10^3 \ {\rm M}_\odot)^{-1}$; the majority ($M<450$ M$_\odot$) have phase-lifetimes longer than their average free-fall time.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

High-mass star-forming cloud G0.38+0.04 in the Galactic Center Dust Ridge contains H2CO and SiO masers

We have discovered a new H$_2$CO (formaldehyde) $1_{1,0}-1_{1,1}$ 4.82966 GHz maser in Galactic Center Cloud C, G0.38+0.04. At the time of acceptance, this is the eighth region containing an H$_2$CO maser detected in the Galaxy. Cloud C is one of only two sites of confirmed high-mass star formation along the Galactic Center Ridge, affirming that H$_2$CO masers are exclusively associated with high-mass star formation. This discovery led us to search for other masers, among which we found new SiO vibrationally excited masers, making this the fourth star-forming region in the Galaxy to exhibit SiO maser emission. Cloud C is also a known source of CH$_3$OH Class-II and OH maser emission. There are now two known SiO and H$_2$CO maser containing regions in the CMZ, compared to two and six respectively in the Galactic disk, while there is a relative dearth of H$_2$O and CH$_3$OH Class-II masers in the CMZ. SiO and H$_2$CO masers may be preferentially excited in the CMZ, perhaps due to higher gas-phase abundances from grain destruction and heating, or alternatively H$_2$O and CH$_3$OH maser formation may be suppressed in the CMZ. In any case, Cloud C is a new testing ground for understanding maser excitation conditions.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Deeply Embedded Protostellar Population in the 20 km s-1 Cloud of the Central Molecular Zone

We report the discovery of a population of deeply embedded protostellar candidates in the 20 km s$^{-1}$ cloud, one of the massive molecular clouds in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Milky Way, using interferometric submillimeter continuum and H$_2$O maser observations. The submillimeter continuum emission shows five 1-pc scale clumps, each of which further fragments into several 0.1-pc scale cores. We identify 17 dense cores, among which 12 are gravitationally bound. Among the 18 H$_2$O masers detected, 13 coincide with the cores and probably trace outflows emanating from the protostars. There are also 5 gravitationally bound dense cores without H$_2$O maser detection. In total the 13 masers and 5 cores may represent 18 protostars with spectral types later than B1 or potential growing more massive stars at earlier evolutionary stage, given the non-detection in the centimeter radio continuum. In combination with previous studies of CH$_3$OH masers, we conclude that the star formation in this cloud is at an early evolutionary phase, before the presence of any significant ionizing or heating sources. Our findings indicate that star formation in this cloud may be triggered by a tidal compression as it approaches pericenter, similar to the case of G0.253+0.016 but with a higher star formation rate, and demonstrate that high angular resolution, high sensitivity maser and submillimeter observations are a promising technique to unveil deeply embedded star formation in the CMZ.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Dense gas in the Galactic central molecular zone is warm and heated by turbulence

The Galactic center is the closest region in which we can study star formation under extreme physical conditions like those in high-redshift galaxies. We measure the temperature of the dense gas in the central molecular zone (CMZ) and examine what drives it. We mapped the inner 300 pc of the CMZ in the temperature-sensitive J = 3-2 para-formaldehyde (p-H$_2$CO) transitions. We used the $3_{2,1} - 2_{2,0} / 3_{0,3} - 2_{0,2}$ line ratio to determine the gas temperature in $n \sim 10^4 - 10^5 $cm$^{-3}$ gas. We have produced temperature maps and cubes with 30" and 1 km/s resolution and published all data in FITS form. Dense gas temperatures in the Galactic center range from ~60 K to > 100 K in selected regions. The highest gas temperatures T_G > 100 K are observed around the Sgr B2 cores, in the extended Sgr B2 cloud, the 20 km/s and 50 km/s clouds, and in "The Brick" (G0.253+0.016). We infer an upper limit on the cosmic ray ionization rate $ζ_{CR} < 10^{-14}$ 1/s. The dense molecular gas temperature of the region around our Galactic center is similar to values found in the central regions of other galaxies, in particular starburst systems. The gas temperature is uniformly higher than the dust temperature, confirming that dust is a coolant in the dense gas. Turbulent heating can readily explain the observed temperatures given the observed line widths. Cosmic rays cannot explain the observed variation in gas temperatures, so CMZ dense gas temperatures are not dominated by cosmic ray heating. The gas temperatures previously observed to be high in the inner ~75 pc are confirmed to be high in the entire CMZ.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey. XIII. Physical Properties and Mass Functions of Dense Molecular Cloud Structures

We use the distance probability density function (DPDF) formalism of Ellsworth-Bowers et al. (2013, 2015) to derive physical properties for the collection of 1,710 Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) version 2 sources with well-constrained distance estimates. To account for Malmquist bias, we estimate that the present sample of BGPS sources is 90% complete above 400 $M_\odot$ and 50% complete above 70 $M_\odot$. The mass distributions for the entire sample and astrophysically motivated subsets are generally fitted well by a lognormal function, with approximately power-law distributions at high mass. Power-law behavior emerges more clearly when the sample population is narrowed in heliocentric distance (power-law index $α= 2.0\pm0.1$ for sources nearer than 6.5 kpc and $α= 1.9\pm0.1$ for objects between 2 kpc and 10 kpc). The high-mass power-law indices are generally $1.85 \leq α\leq 2.05$ for various subsamples of sources, intermediate between that of giant molecular clouds and the stellar initial mass function. The fit to the entire sample yields a high-mass power-law $\hatα = 1.94_{-0.10}^{+0.34}$. Physical properties of BGPS sources are consistent with large molecular cloud clumps or small molecular clouds, but the fractal nature of the dense interstellar medium makes difficult the mapping of observational categories to the dominant physical processes driving the observed structure. The face-on map of the Galactic disk's mass surface density based on BGPS dense molecular cloud structures reveals the high-mass star-forming regions W43, W49, and W51 as prominent mass concentrations in the first quadrant. Furthermore, we present a 0.25-kpc resolution map of the dense gas mass fraction across the Galactic disk that peaks around 5%.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey. XI. Temperatures and Substructure of Galactic Clumps Based on 350 micron Observations

We present 107 maps of continuum emission at 350 microns from Galactic molecular clumps. Observed sources were mainly selected from the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) catalog, with 3 additional maps covering star forming regions in the outer Galaxy. The higher resolution of the SHARC-II images (8.5" beam) compared with the 1.1 mm images from BGPS (33" beam) allowed us to identify a large population of smaller substructures within the clumps. A catalog is presented for the 1386 sources extracted from the 350 micron maps. The color temperature distribution of clumps based on the two wavelengths has a median of 13.3 K and mean of 16.3 +- 0.4 K, assuming an opacity law index of 1.7. For the structures with good determination of color temperatures, the mean ratio of gas temperature, determined from NH3 observations, to dust color temperature is 0.88 and the median ratio is 0.76. About half the clumps have more than two substructures and 22 clumps have more than 10. The fraction of the mass in dense substructures seen at 350 microns compared to the mass of their parental clump is ~0.19, and the surface densities of these substructures are, on average, 2.2 times those seen in the clumps identified at 1.1 mm. For a well-characterized sample, 88 structures (31%) exceed a surface density of 0.2 g cm^(-2), and 18 (6%) exceed 1.0 g cm^(-2), thresholds for massive star formation suggested by theorists.

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