Searching for shocks in high-mass starless clump candidates
In order to search for shocks in the very early stage of star formation, we performed single-point surveys of SiO J=1-0, 2-1 and 3-2 lines and the H$_2$CO $2_{12}-1_{11}$ line toward a sample of 100 high-mass starless clump candidates (SCCs) by using the Korean VLBI Network (KVN) 21-m radio telescopes. The detection rates of the SiO J=1-0, 2-1, 3-2 lines and the H$_2$CO line are $31.0\%$, $31.0\%$, $19.5\%$ and $93.0\%$, respectively. Shocks seem to be common in this stage of massive star formation. The widths of the observed SiO lines (full width at zero power (FWZP)) range from 3.4 to 55.1 km s$^{-1}$. A significant fraction ($\sim29\%$) of the detected SiO spectra have broad line widths (FWZP $>20~km~s^{-1}$), which are very likely associated with fast shocks driven by protostellar outflows. This result suggests that about one third of the SiO-detected SCCs are not really starless but protostellar. On the other hand, about 40$\%$ of the detected SiO spectra show narrow line widths (FWZP<10 $km~s^{-1}$) probably associated with low-velocity shocks which are not necessarily protostellar in origin. The estimated SiO column densities are mostly $0.31-4.32\times10^{12}~cm^{-2}$. Comparing the SiO column densities derived from SiO J=1-0 and 2-1 lines, we suggest that the SiO molecules in the SCCs may be in the non-LTE condition. The SiO abundances to H$_2$ are usually $0.20-10.92\times10^{-10}$.