arXiv subjects

L. Bronfman

Publications and source records attributed to L. Bronfman.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

Feedback from protoclusters does not significantly change the kinematic properties of the embedded dense gas structures

A total of 64 ATOMS sources at different evolutionary stages were selected to investigate the kinematics and dynamics of gas structures under feedback. We identified dense gas structures based on the integrated intensity map of H$^{13}$CO$^+$ J=1-0 emission, and then extracted the average spectra of all structures to investigate their velocity components and gas kinematics. For the scaling relations between velocity dispersion $σ$, effective radius $R$ and column density $N$ of all structures, $σ-N*R$ always has a stronger correlation compared to $σ-N$ and $σ-R$. There are significant correlations between velocity dispersion and column density, which may imply that the velocity dispersion originates from gravitational collapse, also revealed by the velocity gradients. The measured velocity gradients for dense gas structures in early-stage sources and late-stage sources are comparable, indicating gravitational collapse through all evolutionary stages. We quantitatively estimated the velocity dispersion generated by the outflows, inflows, ionized gas pressure and radiation pressure, and found that the ionized gas feedback is stronger than other feedback mechanisms. However, although feedback from HII regions is the strongest, it does not significantly affect the physical properties of the embedded dense gas structures. Combining with the conclusions in Zhou+2023 on cloud-clump scales, we suggest that although feedback from cloud to core scales will break up the original cloud complex, the substructures of the original complex can be reorganized into new gravitationally governed configurations around new gravitational centers. This process is accompanied by structural destruction and generation, and changes in gravitational centers, but gravitational collapse is always ongoing.

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arXiv2023

SiO Outflows in the Most Luminous and Massive Protostellar Sources of the Southern Sky

(Abridged) High-mass star formation is far less understood than low-mass star formation. It entails molecular outflows, which disturb the protostellar clump. Studying these outflows and the shocked gas they cause is key for a better understanding of this process. This study aims to characterise the behaviour of molecular outflows in the most massive protostellar sources in the Southern Galaxy by looking for evolutionary trends and associating shocked gas with outflow activity. We present APEX SEPIA180 observations (beamwidth $\sim$36") of SiO outflow candidates of a sample of 32 luminous and dense clumps, candidates to harbouring Hot Molecular Cores. We study the SiO(4-3) line emission, an unambiguous tracer of shocked gas and recent outflow activity, the HCO$^+$(2-1) and H$^{13}$CO$^+$(2-1) lines. 78% of our sample present SiO emission. Nine of these also have wings in the HCO$^+$ line, indicating outflow activity. The SiO emission of these 9 sources is more intense and wider than the rest, suggesting that the outflows in this group are faster and more energetic. Three positive correlations between the outflow properties were found, which suggest that more energetic outflows bear to mobilise more material. No correlation was found between the evolutionary stage indicator $L/M$ and SiO outflow properties, supporting that outflows happen throughout the whole high-mass star formation process. We conclude that sources with both SiO emission and HCO$^+$ wings and sources with only SiO emission are in virtually the same advanced stage of evolution in the high-mass star formation process. The former present more massive and more powerful SiO outflows than the latter. Thus, looking for more outflow signatures such as HCO$^+$ wings could help identify more massive and active massive star-forming regions in samples of similarly evolved sources, as well as sources with older outflow activity.

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arXiv2023

ALMA-IMF II -- investigating the origin of stellar masses: Continuum Images and Data Processing

We present the first data release of the ALMA-IMF Large Program, which covers the 12m-array continuum calibration and imaging. The ALMA-IMF Large Program is a survey of fifteen dense molecular cloud regions spanning a range of evolutionary stages that aims to measure the core mass function (CMF). We describe the data acquisition and calibration done by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observatory and the subsequent calibration and imaging we performed. The image products are combinations of multiple 12m array configurations created from a selection of the observed bandwidth using multi-term, multi-frequency synthesis imaging and deconvolution. The data products are self-calibrated and exhibit substantial noise improvements over the images produced from the delivered data. We compare different choices of continuum selection, calibration parameters, and image weighting parameters, demonstrating the utility and necessity of our additional processing work. Two variants of continuum selection are used and will be distributed: the "best-sensitivity" data, which include the full bandwidth, including bright emission lines that contaminate the continuum, and "cleanest", which select portions of the spectrum that are unaffected by line emission. We present a preliminary analysis of the spectral indices of the continuum data, showing that the ALMA products are able to clearly distinguish free-free emission from dust emission, and that in some cases we are able to identify optically thick emission sources. The data products are made public with this release.

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arXiv2023

Large-scale Velocity-coherent Filaments in the SEDIGISM Survey: Association with Spiral Arms and Fraction of Dense Gas

Context. Filamentary structures in the interstellar medium are closely related to star formation. Dense gas mass fraction (DGMF) or clump formation efficiency in large-scale filaments possibly determine their hosting star formation activities. Aims. We aim to automatically identify large-scale filaments, characterize them, investigate their association with Galactic structures, and study their DGMFs. Methods. We use a modified minimum spanning tree (MST) algorithm to chain parsec-scale 13CO clumps previously extracted from the SEDIGISM (Structure, Excitation, and Dynamics of the Inner Galactic InterStellar Medium) survey. The MST connects nodes in a graph such that the sum of edge lengths is minimum. Modified MST also ensures velocity coherence between nodes, so the identified filaments are coherent in position-position-velocity (PPV) space. Results. We generate a catalog of 88 large-scale ($>10pc$) filaments in the inner Galactic plane (with $-60^\circ < l < 18^\circ and $|b| < 0.5^\circ$). These SEDIGISM filaments are larger and less dense than MST filaments previously identified from the BGPS and ATLASGAL surveys. We find that eight of the filaments run along spiral arms and can be regarded as "bones" of the Milky Way. We also find three bones associated with the Local Spur in PPV space. By compiling 168 large-scale filaments with available DGMF across the Galaxy, an order of magnitude more than previously investigated, we find that DGMFs do not correlate with Galactic location, but bones have higher DGMFs than other filaments.

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arXiv2023

ALMA-IMF. V. Prestellar and protostellar core populations in the W43 cloud complex

The origin of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) and its relation with the core mass function (CMF) are actively debated issues with important implications in astrophysics. Recent observations in the W43 molecular complex of top-heavy CMFs, with an excess of high-mass cores compared to the canonical mass distribution, raise questions about our understanding of the star formation processes and their evolution in space and time. We aim to compare populations of protostellar and prestellar cores in three regions imaged in the ALMA-IMF Large Program. We created an homogeneous core catalogue in W43, combining a new core extraction in W43-MM1 with the catalogue of W43-MM2&MM3 presented in a previous work. Our detailed search for protostellar outflows enabled us to identify between 23 and 30 protostellar cores out of 127 cores in W43-MM1 and between 42 and 51 protostellar cores out of 205 cores in W43-MM2&MM3. Cores with neither outflows nor hot core emission are classified as prestellar candidates. We found a similar fraction of cores which are protostellar in the two regions, about 35%. This fraction strongly varies in mass, from 15-20% at low mass, between 0.8 and 3$M_{\odot} $ up to about 80% above 16$M_{\odot}$. Protostellar cores are found to be, on average, more massive and smaller in size than prestellar cores. Our analysis also revealed that the high-mass slope of the prestellar CMF in W43, $α=-1.46_{-0.19}^{+0.12}$, is consistent with the Salpeter slope, and thus the top-heavy form measured for the global CMF, $α=-0.96$, is due to the protostellar core population. Our results could be explained by clump-fed models in which cores grow in mass, especially during the protostellar phase, through inflow from their environment. The difference between the slopes of the prestellar and protostellar CMFs moreover implies that high-mass cores grow more in mass than low-mass cores.

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arXiv2023

ALMA-IMF VI -- Investigating the origin of stellar masses: Core mass function evolution in the W43-MM2&MM3 mini-starburst

Among the most central open questions regarding the initial mass function (IMF) of stars is the impact of environment on the shape of the core mass function (CMF) and thus potentially on the IMF. The ALMA-IMF Large Program aims to investigate the variations in the core distributions with cloud characteristics, as diagnostic observables of the formation process and evolution of clouds. The present study focuses on the W43-MM2&MM3 mini-starburst, whose CMF has recently been found to be top-heavy with respect to the Salpeter slope. W43-MM2&MM3 harbors a rich cluster that contains a statistically significant number of cores, which was previously characterized in Paper III. We applied a multi-scale decomposition technique to the ALMA 1.3 mm and 3 mm continuum images to define six subregions. For each subregion we characterized the high column density probability distribution function, n-PDF, and the shape of the cloud gas using the 1.3 mm image. Using the core catalog, we investigate correlations between the CMF and cloud and core properties. We classify the subregions into different stages of evolution, from quiescent to burst to post-burst, based on the surface number density of cores, number of outflows, and UCHii presence. The high-mass end of the subregion CMFs varies from being close to the Salpeter slope (quiescent) to top-heavy (burst and post-burst). Moreover, the second tail of the n-PDF varies from steep, to flat like observed for the high mass star-forming clouds. We found that subregions with flat second n-PDF tails display top-heavy CMFs. The CMF may evolve from Salpeter to top-heavy throughout the star formation process from the quiescent to the burst phase. This scenario raises the question of if the CMF might revert again to Salpeter as the cloud approaches the end of its star formation stage, a hypothesis that remains to be tested.

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arXiv2023

ATOMS: ALMA Three-millimeter Observations of Massive Star-forming regions -XIII. Ongoing triggered star formation within clump-fed scenario found in the massive ($\sim1500$ $\rm M_\odot$) clump

Whether ionization feedback triggers the formation of massive stars is highly debated. Using ALMA 3 mm observations with a spatial resolution of $\sim 0.05$ pc and a mass sensitivity of 1.1 $\rm M_\odot$ beam$^{-1}$ at 20 K, we investigate the star formation and gas flow structures within the ionizing feedback-driven structure, a clump-scale massive ($\gtrsim 1500$ $\rm M_\odot$) bright-rimmed cloud (BRC) associated with IRAS 18290-0924. This BRC is bound only if external compression from ionized gas is considered. A small-scale ($\lesssim1$ pc) age sequence along the direction of ionizing radiation is revealed for the embedded cores and protostars, which suggests triggered star formation via radiation-driven implosion (RDI). Furthermore, filamentary gas structures converge towards the cores located in the BRC's center, indicating that these filaments are fueling mass towards cores. The local core-scale mass infall rate derived from H$^{13}$CO$^+$ $J=1-0$ blue profile is of the same order of magnitude as the filamentary mass inflow rate, approximately 1 $\rm M_\odot$ kyr$^{-1}$. A photodissociation region (PDR) covering the irradiated clump surface is detected in several molecules, such as CCH, HCO$^+$, and CS whereas the spatial distribution stratification of these molecules is indistinct. CCH spectra of the PDR possibly indicate a photoevaporation flow leaving the clump surface with a projected velocity of $\sim2$ km s$^{-1}$. Our new observations show that RDI accompanied by a clump-fed process is operating in this massive BRC. Whether this combined process works in other massive BRCs is worth exploring with dedicated surveys.

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arXiv2022

ALMA-IMF IV -- A comparative study of the main hot cores in W43-MM1: detection, temperature and molecular composition

W43-MM1 is a young region, very rich in terms of high-mass star formation. We aim to systematically identify the massive cores which contain a hot core and compare their molecular composition. We used ALMA high-spatial resolution (2500 au) data of W43-MM1 to identify line-rich protostellar cores and make a comparative study of their temperature and molecular composition. The identification of hot cores is based on both the spatial distribution of the complex organic molecules and the contribution of molecular lines relative to the continuum intensity. We rely on the analysis of CH3CN and CH3CCH to estimate the temperatures of the selected cores. Finally, we rescale the spectra of the different hot cores based on their CH3OCHO line intensities to directly compare the detections and line intensities of the other species. W43-MM1 turns out to be a region rich in massive hot cores with at least 1 less massive and 7 massive hot cores. The excitation temperature of CH3CN is of the same order for all of them (120-160 K). There is a factor of up to 30 difference in the intensity of the complex organic molecules (COMs) lines. However the molecular emission of the hot cores appears to be the same within a factor 2-3. This points towards both a similar chemical composition and excitation of most of the COMs over these massive cores, which span about an order of magnitude in core mass. In contrast, CH3CCH emission is found to preferentially trace more the envelope, with a temperature ranging from 50 K to 90 K. Core 1, the most massive hot core of W43-MM1, shows a richer line spectrum than the other cores. In core 2, the emission of O-bearing molecules does not peak at the dust continuum core center; the blue and red shifted emission correspond to the outflow lobes, suggesting a formation via the sublimation of the ice mantles through shocks or UV irradiation on the walls of the cavity.

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arXiv2022

ALMA-IMF III -- Investigating the origin of stellar masses: Top-heavy core mass function in the W43-MM2&MM3 mini-starburst

The ALMA-IMF Large Program observed the W43-MM2-MM3 ridge, whose 1.3mm and 3mm ALMA 12m array continuum images reach a 2500au spatial resolution. We used both the best-sensitivity and the line-free ALMA-IMF images, reduced the noise with the multi-resolution segmentation technique MnGSeg, and derived the most complete and most robust core catalog possible. Using two different extraction software packages, getsf and GExt2D, we identified 200 compact sources, whose 100 common sources have on average fluxes consistent to within 30%. We filtered sources with non-negligible free-free contamination and corrected fluxes from line contamination, resulting in a W43-MM2-MM3 catalog of 205 getsf cores. With a median deconvolved FWHM size of 3400au, core masses range from 0.1Msun to 70Msun and the getsf catalog is 90% complete down to 0.8Msun. The high-mass end of the core mass function (CMF) of W43-MM2-MM3 is top-heavy compared to the canonical IMF. Fitting the cumulative CMF with a single power law of the form N(>logM)\propto M^a, we measured a=-0.95\pm0.04, compared to the canonical a=-1.35 Salpeter IMF slope. The slope of the CMF is robust with respect to map processing, extraction software package, and reasonable variations in the assumptions taken to estimate core masses. We explore several assumptions on how cores transfer their mass to stars and sub-fragment to predict the IMF resulting from the W43-MM2-MM3 CMF. In stark contrast to the commonly accepted paradigm, our result argues against the universality of the CMF shape. More robust functions of the star-formation efficiency and core sub-fragmentation are required to better predict the resulting IMF, here suggested to remain top-heavy at the end of the star-formation phase. If confirmed, the IMFs emerging from starburst events could inherit their top-heavy shape from their parental CMFs, challenging the IMF universality.

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arXiv2022

ATOMS: ALMA Three-millimeter Observations of Massive Star-forming regions -- X. Chemical differentiation among the massive cores in G9.62+0.19

Investigating the physical and chemical structures of massive star-forming regions is critical for understanding the formation and the early evolution of massive stars. We performed a detailed line survey toward six dense cores named as MM1, MM4, MM6, MM7, MM8, and MM11 in G9.62+0.19 star-forming region resolved in ALMA band 3 observations. Toward these cores, about 172 transitions have been identified and attributed to 16 species including organic Oxygen-, Nitrogen-, Sulfur-bearing molecules and their isotopologues. Four dense cores MM7, MM8, MM4, and MM11 are line rich sources. Modeling of these spectral lines reveals the rotational temperature in a range of 72$-$115~K, 100$-$163~K, 102$-$204~K, and 84$-$123~K for the MM7, MM8, MM4, and MM11, respectively. The molecular column densities are 1.6 $\times$ 10$^{15}$ $-$ 9.2 $\times$ 10$^{17}$~cm$^{-2}$ toward the four cores. The cores MM8 and MM4 show chemical difference between Oxygen- and Nitrogen-bearing species, i.e., MM4 is rich in oxygen-bearing molecules while nitrogen-bearing molecules especially vibrationally excited HC$_{3}$N lines are mainly observed in MM8. The distinct initial temperature at accretion phase may lead to this N/O differentiation. Through analyzing column densities and spatial distributions of O-bearing Complex Organic Molecules (COMs), we found that C$_{2}$H$_{5}$OH and CH$_{3}$OCH$_{3}$ might have a common precursor, CH$_{3}$OH. CH$_{3}$OCHO and CH$_{3}$OCH$_{3}$ are likely chemically linked. In addition, the observed variation in HC$_{3}$N and HC$_{5}$N emission may indicate that their different formation mechanism at hot and cold regions.

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arXiv2021

ALMA-IMF I -- Investigating the origin of stellar masses: Introduction to the Large Program and first results

The ALMA-IMF Large Program imaged a total noncontiguous area of 53pc2, covering 15 extreme, nearby protoclusters of the Milky Way. They were selected to span relevant early protocluster evolutionary stages. Our 1.3mm and 3mm observations provide continuum images that are homogeneously sensitive to point-like cores with masses of 0.2 and 0.6Msun, respectively, with a matched spatial resolution of 2000au. We also detect lines that probe the protocluster structure, kinematics, chemistry, and feedback over scales from clouds to filaments to cores. We classify ALMA-IMF protoclusters as Young, Intermediate, or Evolved based on the amount of dense gas in the cloud that has potentially been impacted by HII regions. The ALMA-IMF catalog contains 700 cores that span a mass range of 0.15-250Msun at a typical size of 2100au. We show that this core sample has no significant distance bias and can be used to build core mass functions at similar physical scales. Significant gas motions, which we highlight here in the G353.41 region, are traced down to core scales and can be used to look for inflowing gas streamers and to quantify the impact of the possible associated core mass growth on the shape of the CMF with time. Our first analysis does not reveal any significant evolution of the matter concentration from clouds to cores or from the youngest to more evolved protoclusters, indicating that cloud dynamical evolution and stellar feedback have for the moment only had a slight effect on the structure of high-density gas in our sample. Furthermore, the first-look analysis of the line richness toward bright cores indicates that the survey encompasses several tens of hot cores, of which we highlight the most massive in the G351.77 cloud. Their homogeneous characterization can be used to constrain the emerging molecular complexity in protostars of high to intermediate masses.

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arXiv2021

The SEDIGISM survey: a search for molecular outflows

Context. The formation processes of massive stars are still unclear but a picture is emerging involving accretion disks and molecular outflows in what appears to be a scaled-up version of low-mass star formation. A census of outflow activity towards massive star-forming clumps in various evolutionary stages has the potential to shed light on massive star formation (MSF). Aims. We conducted an outflow survey towards ATLASGAL clumps using SEDIGISM data and aimed to obtain a large sample of clumps exhibiting outflows in different evolutionary stages. Methods. We identify the high-velocity wings of the 13CO lines toward ATLASGAL clumps by (1) extracting the simultaneously observed 13CO and C18O spectra from SEDIGISM, and (2) subtracting Gaussian fits to the scaled C18O from the 13CO, line after considering opacity broadening. Results. We have detected high-velocity gas towards 1192 clumps out of a total sample of 2052, giving an overall detection rate of 58%. Outflow activity has been detected in the earliest quiescent clumps (i.e., 70$μ$m weak), to the most evolved HII region stages i.e., 8$μ$m bright with MSF tracers. The detection rate increases as a function of evolution (quiescent=51%, protostellar=47%, YSO=57%, UCHII regions=76%). Conclusion. Our sample is the largest outflow sample identified so far. The high-detection rate from this large sample is consistent with previous results and supports that outflows are a ubiquitous feature of MSF. The lower detection rate in early evolutionary stages may be due to that outflows in the early stages are weak and difficult to detect. We obtain a statistically significant sample of outflow clumps for every evolutionary stage, especially for outflow clumps in the 70$μ$m dark stage. This suggests that the absence of 70$μ$m emission is not a robust indicator of starless/pre-stellar cores.

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arXiv2021

The SEDIGISM survey: The influence of spiral arms on the molecular gas distribution of the inner Milky Way

The morphology of the Milky Way is still a matter of debate. In order to shed light on uncertainties surrounding the structure of the Galaxy, in this paper, we study the imprint of spiral arms on the distribution and properties of its molecular gas. To do so, we take full advantage of the SEDIGISM survey that observed a large area of the inner Galaxy in the $^{13}$CO(2-1) line at an angular resolution of 28". We analyse the influences of the spiral arms by considering the features of the molecular gas emission as a whole across the longitude-velocity map built from the full survey. Additionally, we examine the properties of the molecular clouds in the spiral arms compared to the properties of their counterparts in the inter-arm regions. Through flux and luminosity probability distribution functions, we find that the molecular gas emission associated with the spiral arms does not differ significantly from the emission between the arms. On average, spiral arms show masses per unit length of $\sim10^5-10^6$ M$_{\odot} $kpc$^{-1}$. This is similar to values inferred from data sets in which emission distributions were segmented into molecular clouds. By examining the cloud distribution across the Galactic plane, we infer that the molecular mass in the spiral arms is a factor of 1.5 higher than that of the inter-arm medium, similar to what is found for other spiral galaxies in the local Universe. We observe that only the distributions of cloud mass surface densities and aspect ratio in the spiral arms show significant differences compared to those of the inter-arm medium; other observed differences appear instead to be driven by a distance bias. By comparing our results with simulations and observations of nearby galaxies, we conclude that the measured quantities would classify the Milky Way as a flocculent spiral galaxy, rather than as a grand-design one.

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arXiv2021

ATOMS: ALMA Three-millimeter Observations of Massive Star-forming regions -- IV. Radio Recombination Lines and evolution of star formation efficiencies

We report detection of radio recombination line (RRL) H$_{40α}$ toward 75 sources, with data obtained from ACA observations in the ATOMS survey of 146 active Galactic star forming regions. We calculated ionized gas mass and star formation rate with H40U line emission. The mass of ionized gas is significantly smaller than molecular gas mass, indicating that ionized gas is negligible in the star forming clumps of the ATOMS sample. The star formation rate (SFR$_{{\rm H}_{40α}}$) estimated with RRL H$_{40α}$ agrees well with that (SFR$_{\rm L_{bol}}$) calculated with the total bolometric luminosity (L$_{\rm bol}$) when SFR $\gtrsim 5 {\rm M_\odot My}r^{-1}$, suggesting that millimeter RRLs could well sample the upper part of the initial mass function (IMF) and thus be good tracers for SFR. We also study the relationships between L$_{\rm bol}$ and the molecular line luminosities (L0mol) of CS J=2-1 and HC$_3$N J=11-10 for all the 146 ATOMS sources. The Lbol-L0mol correlations of both the CS J=2-1 and HC3N J=11-10 lines appear approximately linear and these transitions have success in predicting L$_{\rm bol}$ similar to that of more commonly used transitions. The L$_{\rm bol}$-to-L$_{\rm mol}$ ratios or SFR-to-mass ratios (star formation efficiency; SFE) do not change with galactocentric distances (R$_{\rm GC}$). Sources with H$_{40α}$ emission (or H$_{\rm II}$ regions) show higher L$_{\rm bol}$-to-L$_{\rm mol}$ than those without H$_{40α}$ emission, which may be an evolutionary effect.

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arXiv2021

Characterization of dense Planck clumps observed with Herschel and SCUBA-2

We aim to characterize a diverse selection of dense, potentially star-forming cores, clumps, and clouds within the Milky Way in terms of their dust emission and SF activity. We studied 53 fields that have been observed in the JCMT SCUBA-2 continuum survey SCOPE and have been mapped with Herschel. We estimated dust properties by fitting Herschel observations with modified blackbody functions, studied the relationship between dust temperature and dust opacity spectral index $β$, and estimated column densities. We extracted clumps from the SCUBA-2 850 $μ$m maps with the FellWalker algorithm and examined their masses and sizes. Clumps are associated with young stellar objects found in several catalogs. We estimated the gravitational stability of the clumps with virial analysis. The clumps are categorized as unbound starless, prestellar, or protostellar. We find 529 dense clumps, typically with high column densities from (0.3-4.8)$\times 10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$, with a mean of (1.5$\pm$0.04)$\times10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$, low temperatures ($T\sim $10-20 K), and estimated submillimeter $β$ =1.7$\pm$0.1. We detect a slight increase in opacity spectral index toward millimeter wavelengths. Masses of the sources range from 0.04 $M_\odot$ to 4259 $M_\odot$. Mass, linear size, and temperature are correlated with distance. Furthermore, the estimated gravitational stability is dependent on distance, and more distant clumps appear more virially bound. Finally, we present a catalog of properties of the clumps.Our sources present a large array of SF regions, from high-latitude, nearby diffuse clouds to large SF complexes near the Galactic center. Analysis of these regions will continue with the addition of molecular line data, which will allow us to study the densest regions of the clumps in more detail.

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arXiv2020

Physical characterization of S169: A prototypical IR bubble associated with the massive star-forming region IRAS12326-6245

With the aim of studying the properties of Galactic IR bubbles and their impact in massive star formation, we present a study of the IR bubble S169, associated with the massive star forming region IRAS12326-6245. We used CO(2-1),$^{13}$CO(2-1), C$^{18}$O(2-1), HCN(3-2), and HCO+(3-2) line data obtained with the APEX telescope to study the properties of the molecular gas in the nebula and the IRAS source . To analyze the properties and distribution of the dust, we used IRAC-GLIMPSE, Herschel, and ATLASGAL data. The properties of the ionized gas were studied using images obtained from the SUMSS survey and SuperCOSMOS database. In our search for stellar and protostellar objects in the region, we used IR and optical point source calalogs. The new APEX observations allowed us to identify three molecular components associated with the nebula, namely: at $-$39 km/s (component A), $-$25 km/s (component B), and $-$17 km/s (component C). Six molecular condensations (MC1 to MC6) were identified in component A, with MC3 (the densest and more massive one) being the molecular counterpart of IRAS12326-6245. For this source, we estimated an H$_2$ column density up to 8$\times$10$^{23}$ cm$^{-2}$. To explain the morphology and velocity of components A, B, and C, we propose a simple model consisting of a partially complete semisphere-like structure expanding at ~ 12 km/s. The introduction of this model has led to a discussion about the distance to both S169 and IRAS12326-6245, which was estimated to be ~ 2 kpc. Several candidate YSOs were identified, projected mostly onto the molecular condensations MC3, MC4, and MC5, which indicates that the star-formation process is very active at the borders of the nebula. A comparison between observable and modeled parameters was not enough to discern whether the collect-and-collapse mechanism is acting at the edge of S169.

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arXiv2020

The SEDIGISM survey: first data release and overview of the Galactic structure

The SEDIGISM (Structure, Excitation and Dynamics of the Inner Galactic Interstellar Medium) survey used the APEX telescope to map 84 deg^2 of the Galactic plane between l = -60 deg and l = +31 deg in several molecular transitions, including 13CO(2-1) and C18O(2-1), thus probing the moderately dense (~10^3 cm^-3) component of the interstellar medium. With an angular resolution of 30'' and a typical 1-sigma sensitivity of 0.8-1.0 K at 0.25 km/s velocity resolution, it gives access to a wide range of structures, from individual star-forming clumps to giant molecular clouds and complexes. The coverage includes a good fraction of the first and fourth Galactic quadrants, allowing us to constrain the large scale distribution of cold molecular gas in the inner Galaxy. In this paper we provide an updated overview of the full survey and the data reduction procedures used. We also assess the quality of these data and describe the data products that are being made publicly available as part of this first data release (DR1). We present integrated maps and position-velocity maps of the molecular gas and use these to investigate the correlation between the molecular gas and the large scale structural features of the Milky Way such as the spiral arms, Galactic bar and Galactic centre. We find that approximately 60 per cent of the molecular gas is associated with the spiral arms and these appear as strong intensity peaks in the derived Galactocentric distribution. We also find strong peaks in intensity at specific longitudes that correspond to the Galactic centre and well known star forming complexes, revealing that the 13CO emission is concentrated in a small number of complexes rather than evenly distributed along spiral arms.

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arXiv2020

The SEDIGISM survey: Molecular clouds in the inner Galaxy

We use the 13CO(2-1) emission from the SEDIGISM high-resolution spectral-line survey of the inner Galaxy, to extract the molecular cloud population with a large dynamic range in spatial scales, using the SCIMES algorithm. This work compiles a cloud catalogue with a total of 10663 molecular clouds, 10300 of which we were able to assign distances and compute physical properties. We study some of the global properties of clouds using a science sample, consisting of 6664 well resolved sources and for which the distance estimates are reliable. In particular, we compare the scaling relations retrieved from SEDIGISM to those of other surveys, and we explore the properties of clouds with and without high-mass star formation. Our results suggest that there is no single global property of a cloud that determines its ability to form massive stars, although we find combined trends of increasing mass, size, surface density and velocity dispersion for the sub-sample of clouds with ongoing high-mass star formation. We then isolate the most extreme clouds in the SEDIGISM sample (i.e. clouds in the tails of the distributions) to look at their overall Galactic distribution, in search for hints of environmental effects. We find that, for most properties, the Galactic distribution of the most extreme clouds is only marginally different to that of the global cloud population. The Galactic distribution of the largest clouds, the turbulent clouds and the high-mass star-forming clouds are those that deviate most significantly from the global cloud population. We also find that the least dynamically active clouds (with low velocity dispersion or low virial parameter) are situated further afield, mostly in the least populated areas. However, we suspect that part of these trends may be affected by some observational biases, and thus require further follow up work in order to be confirmed.

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