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The fragmentation mode of high-mass molecular clumps and the accretion processes that form the most massive stars ($M\gtrsim 8M_\odot$) are still not well understood. To this end, we have undertaken a large observational program (CORE) making use of interferometric observations from the Northern Extended Millimetre Array (NOEMA) for a sample of 20 luminous ($L>10^4L_\odot$) protostellar objects in the 1.37 mm wavelength regime in both continuum and line emission, reaching $\sim$0.4" resolution (800 au at 2 kpc). Using the dense gas tracer CH$_3$CN, we find velocity gradients across 13 cores perpendicular to the directions of bipolar molecular outflows, making them excellent disk candidates. Specific angular momentum ($j$) radial profiles are on average $\sim10^{-3}$ km /s pc and follow $j \propto r^{1.7}$, consistent with a poorly resolved rotating and infalling envelope/disk model. Fitting the velocity profiles with a Keplerian model, we find protostellar masses in the range of $\sim 10-25$ $M_\odot$. Modelling the level population of CH$_3$CN lines, we present temperature maps and find median gas temperatures in the range $70-210$ K. We create Toomre $Q$ maps to study the stability of the disks and find almost all (11 of 13) disk candidates to be prone to fragmentation due to gravitational instabilities at the scales probed by our observations. In particular, disks with masses greater than $\sim10-20\%$ of the mass of their host (proto)stars are Toomre unstable, and more luminous protostellar objects tend to have disks that are more massive and hence more prone to fragmentation. Our finings show that most disks around high-mass protostars are prone to disk fragmentation early in their formation due to their high disk to stellar mass ratio. This impacts the accretion evolution of high-mass protostars which will have significant implications for the formation of the most massive stars., Comment: 27 pages, 12 figures, 6 appendices - accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics

Massive star formation occurs in the interior of giant molecular clouds (GMC) and proceeds through many stages. In this work, we focus on massive young stellar objects (MYSOs) and Ultra-Compact HII regions (UCHII), where the former are enshrouded in dense envelopes of dust and gas, which the latter have begun dispersing. By selecting a complete sample of MYSOs and UCHII from the Red MSX Source (RMS) survey data base, we combine Planck and IRAS data and build their Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs). With these, we estimate the physical properties (dust temperatures, mass, luminosity) of the sample. Because the RMS database provides unique solar distances, it also allows investigating the instantaneous Star Formation Efficiency (SFE) as a function of Galactocentric radius. We find that the SFE increase between 2 and 4.5 kpc, where it reaches a peak, likely in correspondence of the accumulation of molecular material at the end of the Galactic bar. It then stays approximately constant up to 9 kpc, after which it linearly declines, in agreement with predictions from extragalactic studies. This behavior suggests the presence of a significant amount of undetected molecular gas at R$_G$ $>$ 8 kpc. Finally we present diagnostic colors that can be used to identify sites of massive star formation., Comment: Accepted for publication to ApJ

We have studied the dust density, temperature and velocity distributions of the archetypal massive young stellar object (MYSO) AFGL 2591. Given its high luminosity ($L=2 \times 10^5$ L$_\odot$) and distance ($d=3.3$ kpc), AFGL 2591 has one of the highest $\sqrt{L}/d$ ratio, giving better resolved dust emission than any other MYSO. As such, this paper provides a template on how to use resolved multi-wavelength data and radiative transfer to obtain a well-constrained 2-D axi-symmetric analytic rotating infall model. We show for the first time that the resolved dust continuum emission from Herschel 70 $\mu$m observations is extended along the outflow direction, whose origin is explained in part from warm dust in the outflow cavity walls. However, the model can only explain the kinematic features from CH$_3$CN observations with unrealistically low stellar masses ($<15$ M$_\odot$), indicating that additional physical processes may be playing a role in slowing down the envelope rotation. As part of our 3-step continuum and line fitting, we have identified model parameters that can be further constrained by specific observations. High-resolution mm visibilities were fitted to obtain the disc mass (6 M$_\odot$) and radius (2200 au). A combination of SED and near-IR observations were used to estimate the luminosity and envelope mass together with the outflow cavity inclination and opening angles., Comment: 34 pages, 22 figures, 15 tables, 4 appendices. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Forming high-mass stars have a significant effect on their natal environment. Their feedback pathways, including winds, outflows, and ionising radiation, shape the evolution of their surroundings which impacts the formation of the next generation of stars. They create or reveal dense pillars of gas and dust towards the edges of the cavities they clear. They are modelled in feedback simulations, and the sizes and shapes of the pillars produced are consistent with those observed. However, these models predict measurably different kinematics which provides testable discriminants. Here we present the first ALMA Compact Array (ACA) survey of 13 pillars in Carina, observed in $^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO and C$^{18}$O J=2-1, and the 230 GHz continuum. The pillars in this survey were chosen to cover a wide range in properties relating to the amount and direction of incident radiation, proximity to nearby irradiating clusters and cloud rims, and whether they are detached from the cloud. With these data, we are able to discriminate between models. We generally find pillar velocity dispersions of $<$ 1 km s$^{-1}$ and that the outer few layers of molecular emission in these pillars show no significant offsets from each other, suggesting little bulk internal motions within the pillars. There are instances where the pillars are offset in velocity from their parental cloud rim, and some with no offset, hinting at a stochastic development of these motions., Comment: 24 Pages, 19 figures. Accepted to MNRAS

We present a detailed observational and modeling study of the hot core VLA 3 in the high-mass star-forming region AFGL 2591, which is a target region of the NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) large program CORE. Using NOEMA observations at 1.37 mm with an angular resolution of ~0."42 (1 400 au at 3.33 kpc), we derived the physical and chemical structure of the source. We modeled the observed molecular abundances with the chemical evolution code MUSCLE (MUlti Stage ChemicaL codE). Results. With the kinetic temperature tracers CH3CN and H2CO we observe a temperature distribution with a power-law index of q = 0.41+-0.08. Using the visibilities of the continuum emission we derive a density structure with a power-law index of p = 1.7+-0.1. The hot core spectra reveal high molecular abundances and a rich diversity in complex molecules. The majority of the molecules have an asymmetric spatial distribution around the forming protostar(s), which indicates a complex physical structure on scales < 1 400 au. Using MUSCLE, we are able to explain the observed molecular abundance of 10 out of 14 modeled species at an estimated hot core chemical age of ~21 100 years. In contrast to the observational analysis, our chemical modeling predicts a lower density power-law index of p < 1.4. Reasons for this discrepancy are discussed. Conclusions. Combining high spatial resolution observations with detailed chemical modeling allows us to derive a concise picture of the physical and chemical structure of the famous AFGL 2591 hot core. The next steps are to conduct a similar analysis for the whole CORE sample, and then use this analysis to constrain the chemical diversity in high-mass star formation to a much greater depth., Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

The formation process of high-mass stars (>8M$_\odot$) is poorly constrained, particularly, the effects of clump fragmentation creating multiple systems and the mechanism of mass accretion onto the cores. We study the fragmentation of dense gas clumps, and trace the circumstellar rotation and outflows by analyzing observations of the high-mass (~500M$_\odot$) star-forming region IRAS 23033+5951. Using the Northern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) in three configurations and the IRAM 30-m single-dish telescope at 220GHz, we probe the gas and dust emission at an angular resolution of ~0.45arcsec, corresponding to 1900au. In the mm continuum emission, we identify a protostellar cluster with at least four mm-sources, where three of them show a significantly higher peak intensity well above a signal-to-noise ratio of 100. Hierarchical fragmentation from large to small spatial scales is discussed. Two fragments are embedded in rotating structures and drive molecular outflows, traced by $^{13}$CO (2-1) emission. The velocity profiles across two of the cores are similar to Keplerian but are missing the highest velocity components close to the center of rotation, which is a common phenomena from observations like these, and other rotation scenarios are not excluded entirely. Position-velocity diagrams suggest protostellar masses of ~6 and 19M$_\sun$. Rotational temperatures from fitting CH$_3$CN ($12_K-11_K$) spectra are used for estimating the gas temperature and by that the disk stability against gravitational fragmentation, utilizing Toomre's $Q$ parameter. [We] identify only one candidate disk to be unstable against gravitational instability caused by axisymmetric perturbations. The dominant sources cover different evolutionary stages within the same maternal gas clump. The appearance of rotation and outflows of the cores are similar to those found in low-mass star-forming regions., Comment: 23 pages, 16 figures, 5 tables, accepted for publication in A&A

This study is part of the project ``CORE'', an IRAM/NOEMA large program consisting of observations of the millimeter continuum and molecular line emission towards 20 selected high-mass star forming regions. We focus on IRAS23385+6053, which is believed to be the least evolved source of the CORE sample. The observations were performed at ~1.4 mm and employed three configurations of NOEMA and additional single-dish maps, merged with the interferometric data to recover the extended emission. Our correlator setup covered a number of lines from well-known hot core tracers and a few outflow tracers. The angular (~0.45"$-$0.9") and spectral (0.5 km/s) resolutions were sufficient to resolve the clump in IRAS23385+6053 and investigate the existence of large-scale motions due to rotation, infall, or expansion. We find that the clump splits into six distinct cores when observed at sub-arcsecond resolution. These are identified through their 1.4 mm continuum and molecular line emission. We produce maps of the velocity, line width, and rotational temperature from the methanol and methyl cyanide lines, which allow us to investigate the cores and reveal a velocity and temperature gradient in the most massive core. We also find evidence of a bipolar outflow, possibly powered by a low-mass star. We present the tentative detection of a circumstellar self-gravitating disk lying in the most massive core and powering a large-scale outflow previously known in the literature. In our scenario, the star powering the flow is responsible for most of the luminosity of IRAS23385+6053 (~$3000~L_\odot$). The other cores, albeit with masses below the corresponding virial masses, appear to be accreting material from their molecular surroundings and are possibly collapsing or on the verge of collapse. We conclude that we are observing a sample of star-forming cores that is bound to turn into a cluster of massive stars.

We present images of radio recombination lines (RRLs) at wavelengths around 17 cm from the star-forming region W49A to determine the kinematics of ionized gas in the THOR survey (The HI/OH/Recombination line survey of the inner Milky Way) at an angular resolution of 16.8"x13.8". The distribution of ionized gas appears to be affected by feedback processes from the star clusters in W49A. The velocity structure of the RRLs shows a complex behavior with respect to the molecular gas. We find a shell-like distribution of ionized gas as traced by RRL emission surrounding the central cluster of OB stars in W49A. We describe the evolution of the shell with the recent feedback model code WARPFIELD that includes the important physical processes and has previously been applied to the 30 Doradus region in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The cloud structure and dynamics of W49A are in agreement with a feedback-driven shell that is re-collapsing. The shell may have triggered star formation in other parts of W49A. We suggest that W49A is a potential candidate for star formation regulated by feedback-driven and re-collapsing shells., Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures. Published in A&A. Updated to match published version

We present high angular resolution 0.2 arcsec continuum and molecular emission line Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) observations of G17.64+0.16 in Band 6 (220GHz) taken as part of a campaign in search of circumstellar discs around (proto)-O-stars. At a resolution of 400au the main continuum core is essentially unresolved and isolated from other strong and compact emission peaks. At a resolution of 400au the main continuum core is essentially unresolved and isolated from other strong and compact emission peaks. We detect SiO (5-4) emission that is marginally resolved and elongated in a direction perpendicular to the large-scale outflow seen in the 13CO (2-1) line using the main ALMA array in conjunction with the Atacama Compact Array (ACA). Morphologically, the SiO appears to represent a disc-like structure. Using parametric models we show that the position-velocity profile of the SiO is consistent with the Keplerian rotation of a disc around an object between 10-30Mo in mass, only if there is also radial expansion from a separate structure. The radial motion component can be interpreted as a disc wind from the disc surface. Models with a central stellar object mass between 20 and 30Mo are the most consistent with the stellar luminosity (100000 Lo) and indicative of an O-type star. The H30a millimetre recombination line (231.9GHz) is also detected, but spatially unresolved, and is indicative of a very compact, hot, ionised region co-spatial with the dust continuum core. Accounting for all observables, we suggest that G17.64 is consistent with a O-type young stellar object in the final stages of protostellar assembly, driving a wind, but that has not yet developed into a compact HII region. The existance and detection of the disc in G17.64 is likely related to its isolated and possibly more evolved nature, traits which may underpin discs in similar sources., Comment: 23 pages, 13 fig (inc 3 Appendix figures)

We introduce the histogram of oriented gradients (HOG), a tool developed for machine vision that we propose as a new metric for the systematic characterization of observations of atomic and molecular gas and the study of molecular cloud formation models. In essence, the HOG technique takes as input extended spectral-line observations from two tracers and provides an estimate of their spatial correlation across velocity channels. We characterize HOG using synthetic observations of HI and $^{13}$CO(J=1-0) emission from numerical simulations of MHD turbulence leading to the formation of molecular gas after the collision of two atomic clouds. We find a significant spatial correlation between the two tracers in velocity channels where $v_{HI}\approx v_{^{13}CO}$, independent of the orientation of the collision with respect to the line of sight. We use HOG to investigate the spatial correlation of the HI, from the THOR survey, and the $^{13}$CO(J=1-0) emission, from the GRS, toward the portion of the Galactic plane 33.75$\lt l\lt$35.25$^{o}$ and $|b|\lt$1.25$^{o}$. We find a significant spatial correlation between the tracers in extended portions of the studied region. Although some of the regions with high spatial correlation are associated with HI self-absorption features, suggesting that it is produced by the cold atomic gas, the correlation is not exclusive to this kind of region. The HOG results also indicate significant differences between individual regions: some show spatial correlation in channels around $v_{HI}\approx v_{^{13}CO}$ while others present this correlation in velocity channels separated by a few km/s. We associate these velocity offsets to the effect of feedback and to the presence of physical conditions that are not included in the atomic-cloud-collision simulations, such as more general magnetic field configurations, shear, and global gas infall., Comment: 32 pages, 36 figures. Accepted for publication at A&A (28DEC2018)

The fragmentation mode of high-mass molecular clumps and the properties of the central rotating structures surrounding the most luminous objects have yet to be comprehensively characterised. Using the IRAM NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) and the IRAM 30-m telescope, the CORE survey has obtained high-resolution observations of 20 well-known highly luminous star-forming regions in the 1.37 mm wavelength regime in both line and dust continuum emission. We present the spectral line setup of the CORE survey and a case study for W3(H2O). At ~0.35" (700 AU at 2 kpc) resolution, the W3(H2O) clump fragments into two cores (West and East), separated by ~2300 AU. Velocity shifts of a few km/s are observed in the dense-gas tracer, CH3CN, across both cores, consistent with rotation and perpendicular to the directions of two bipolar outflows, one emanating from each core. The kinematics of the rotating structure about W3(H2O) W shows signs of differential rotation of material, possibly in a disk-like object. The observed rotational signature around W3(H2O) E may be due to a disk-like object, an unresolved binary (or multiple) system, or a combination of both. We fit the emission of CH3CN (12-11) K = 4-6 and derive a gas temperature map with a median temperature of ~165 K across W3(H2O). We create a Toomre Q map to study the stability of the rotating structures against gravitational instability. The rotating structures appear to be Toomre unstable close to their outer boundaries, with a possibility of further fragmentation in the differentially-rotating core W3(H2O) W. Rapid cooling in the Toomre-unstable regions supports the fragmentation scenario. Combining millimeter dust continuum and spectral line data toward the famous high-mass star-forming region W3(H2O), we identify core fragmentation on large scales, and indications for possible disk fragmentation on smaller spatial scales., Comment: 23 pages, 26 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics

Aims: We aim to understand the fragmentation as well as the disk formation, outflow generation and chemical processes during high-mass star formation on spatial scales of individual cores. Methods: Using the IRAM Northern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) in combination with the 30m telescope, we have observed in the IRAM large program CORE the 1.37mm continuum and spectral line emission at high angular resolution (~0.4'') for a sample of 20 well-known high-mass star-forming regions with distances below 5.5kpc and luminosities larger than 10^4Lsun. Results: We present the overall survey scope, the selected sample, the observational setup and the main goals of CORE. Scientifically, we concentrate on the mm continuum emission on scales on the order of 1000AU. We detect strong mm continuum emission from all regions, mostly due to the emission from cold dust. The fragmentation properties of the sample are diverse. We see extremes where some regions are dominated by a single high-mass core whereas others fragment into as many as 20 cores. A minimum-spanning-tree analysis finds fragmentation at scales on the order of the thermal Jeans length or smaller suggesting that turbulent fragmentation is less important than thermal gravitational fragmentation. The diversity of highly fragmented versus singular regions can be explained by varying initial density structures and/or different initial magnetic field strengths. Conclusions: The smallest observed separations between cores are found around the angular resolution limit which indicates that further fragmentation likely takes place on even smaller spatial scales. The CORE project with its numerous spectral line detections will address a diverse set of important physical and chemical questions in the field of high-mass star formation., Comment: 29 pages, 17 figures, Astronomy & Astrophysics in press, for a higher-resolution version of the paper see http://www.mpia.de/homes/beuther/papers.html

As part of our effort to search for circumstellar disks around high-mass stellar objects, we observed the well-known core G31.41+0.31 with ALMA at 1.4 mm with an angular resolution of~0.22" (~1700 au). The dust continuum emission has been resolved into two cores namely Main and NE. The Main core, which has the stronger emission and is the more chemically rich, has a diameter of ~5300 au, and is associated with two free-free continuum sources. The Main core looks featureless and homogeneous in dust continuum emission and does not present any hint of fragmentation. Each transition of CH3CN and CH3OCHO, both ground and vibrationally excited, as well as those of CH3CN isotopologues, shows a clear velocity gradient along the NE-SW direction, with velocity linearly increasing with distance from the center, consistent with solid-body rotation. However, when comparing the velocity field of transitions with different upper level energies, the rotation velocity increases with increasing energy of the transition, which suggests that the rotation speeds up towards the center. Spectral lines towards the dust continuum peak show an inverse P-Cygni profile that supports the existence of infall in the core. The infall velocity increases with the energy of the transition suggesting that the infall is accelerating towards the center of the core, consistent with gravitational collapse. Despite the monolithic appearance of the Main core, the presence of red-shifted absorption, the existence of two embedded free-free sources at the center, and the rotational spin-up are consistent with an unstable core undergoing fragmentation with infall and differential rotation due to conservation of angular momentum. Therefore, the most likely explanation for the monolithic morphology is that the large opacity of the dust emission prevents the detection of any inhomogeneity in the core., Comment: 28 pages, 16 figures, and 7 tables. Accepted for publication in A&A

We present 850 and 450 micron observations of the dense regions within the Auriga-California molecular cloud using SCUBA-2 as part of the JCMT Gould Belt Legacy Survey to identify candidate protostellar objects, measure the masses of their circumstellar material (disk and envelope), and compare the star formation to that in the Orion A molecular cloud. We identify 59 candidate protostars based on the presence of compact submillimeter emission, complementing these observations with existing Herschel/SPIRE maps. Of our candidate protostars, 24 are associated with young stellar objects (YSOs) in the Spitzer and Herschel/PACS catalogs of 166 and 60 YSOs, respectively (177 unique), confirming their protostellar nature. The remaining 35 candidate protostars are in regions, particularly around LkHalpha 101, where the background cloud emission is too bright to verify or rule out the presence of the compact 70 micron emission that is expected for a protostellar source. We keep these candidate protostars in our sample but note that they may indeed be prestellar in nature. Our observations are sensitive to the high end of the mass distribution in Auriga-Cal. We find that the disparity between the richness of infrared star forming objects in Orion A and the sparsity in Auriga-Cal extends to the submillimeter, suggesting that the relative star formation rates have not varied over the Class II lifetime and that Auriga-Cal will maintain a lower star formation efficiency., Comment: 39 pages (54 including the Appendix), 9 figures, 3 tables, in press in ApJ

High-mass stars form in much richer environments than those associated with isolated low-mass stars, and once they reach a certain mass, produce ionised (HII) regions. The formation of these pockets of ionised gas are unique to the formation of high-mass stars (M $>8$ M$_\odot$), and present an excellent opportunity to study the final stages of accretion, which could include accretion through the HII region itself. This study of the dynamics of the gas on both sides of these ionisation boundaries in very young HII regions aims to quantify the relationship between the HII regions and their immediate environments.We present high-resolution ($\sim$ 0.5$"$) ALMA observations of nine HII regions selected from the Red MSX Source (RMS) survey with compact radio emission and bolometric luminosities greater than 10$^4$ L$_\odot$. We focus on the initial presentation of the data, including initial results from the radio recombination line H29$\alpha$, some complementary molecules, and the 256 GHz continuum emission. Of the six (out of nine) regions with H29$\alpha$ detections, two appear to have cometary morphologies with velocity gradients across them, and two appear more spherical with velocity gradients suggestive of infalling ionised gas. The remaining two were either observed at low resolution or had signals that were too weak to draw robust conclusions. We also present a description of the interactions between the ionised and molecular gas (as traced by CS (J=5-4)), often (but not always) finding theHII region had cleared its immediate vicinity of molecules. Of our sample of nine, the observations of the two clusters expected to have the youngest HII regions (from previous radio observations) are suggestive of having infalling motions in the H29$\alpha$ emission, which could be indicative of late stage accretion onto the stars despite the presence of an HII region., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 25 pages, 15 figures, 9 tables, with Table A.2 made available electronically via the CDS

Hi-GAL is a large-scale survey of the Galactic plane, performed with Herschel in five infrared continuum bands between 70 and 500 $\mu$m. We present a band-merged catalogue of spatially matched sources and their properties derived from fits to the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and heliocentric distances, based on the photometric catalogs presented in Molinari et al. (2016a), covering the portion of Galactic plane $-71.0^{\circ}< \ell < 67.0^{\circ}$. The band-merged catalogue contains 100922 sources with a regular SED, 24584 of which show a 70 $\mu$m counterpart and are thus considered proto-stellar, while the remainder are considered starless. Thanks to this huge number of sources, we are able to carry out a preliminary analysis of early stages of star formation, identifying the conditions that characterise different evolutionary phases on a statistically significant basis. We calculate surface densities to investigate the gravitational stability of clumps and their potential to form massive stars. We also explore evolutionary status metrics such as the dust temperature, luminosity and bolometric temperature, finding that these are higher in proto-stellar sources compared to pre-stellar ones. The surface density of sources follows an increasing trend as they evolve from pre-stellar to proto-stellar, but then it is found to decrease again in the majority of the most evolved clumps. Finally, we study the physical parameters of sources with respect to Galactic longitude and the association with spiral arms, finding only minor or no differences between the average evolutionary status of sources in the fourth and first Galactic quadrants, or between "on-arm" and "inter-arm" positions., Comment: Accepted by MNRAS

(Abridged) Through spectrally unresolved observations of high-J CO transitions, Herschel-PACS has revealed large reservoirs of warm (300 K) and hot (700 K) molecular gas around low-mass protostars. We aim to shed light on the excitation and origin of the CO ladder observed toward protostars, and on the water abundance in different physical components using spectrally resolved Herschel-HIFI data. Observations are presented of the highly excited CO line J=16-15 with Herschel-HIFI toward 24 low-mass protostellar objects. The spectrally resolved profiles show two distinct velocity components: a broad component with an average FWHM of 20 km/s, and a narrower component with a FWHM of 5 km/s that is often offset from the source velocity. The average rotational temperature over the entire profile, as measured from comparison between CO J=16-15 and 10-9 emission, is ~300 K. A radiative-transfer analysis shows that the average H2O/CO column-density ratio is ~0.02, suggesting a total H2O abundance of ~2x10^-6. Two distinct velocity profiles observed in the HIFI line profiles suggest that the CO ladder observed with PACS consists of two excitation components. The warm component (300 K) is associated with the broad HIFI component, and the hot component (700 K) is associated with the offset HIFI component. The former originates in either outflow cavity shocks or the disk wind, and the latter in irradiated shocks. The ubiquity of the warm and hot CO components suggests that fundamental mechanisms govern the excitation of these components; we hypothesize that the warm component arises when H2 stops being the dominant coolant. In this scenario, the hot component arises in cooling molecular H2-poor gas just prior to the onset of H2 formation. High spectral resolution observations of highly excited CO transitions uniquely shed light on the origin of warm and hot gas in low-mass protostellar objects., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A

In molecular outflows from forming low-mass protostars, most oxygen is expected to be locked up in water. However, Herschel observations have shown that typically an order of magnitude or more of the oxygen is still unaccounted for. To test if the oxygen is instead in atomic form, SOFIA-GREAT observed the R1 position of the bright molecular outflow from NGC1333-IRAS4A. The [OI] 63 um line is detected and spectrally resolved. From an intensity peak at +15 km/s, the intensity decreases until +50 km/s. The profile is similar to that of high-velocity (HV) H2O and CO 16-15, the latter observed simultaneously with [OI]. A radiative transfer analysis suggests that ~15% of the oxygen is in atomic form toward this shock position. The CO abundance is inferred to be ~10^-4 by a similar analysis, suggesting that this is the dominant oxygen carrier in the HV component. These results demonstrate that a large portion of the observed [OI] emission is part of the outflow. Further observations are required to verify whether this is a general trend., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A Letters

We present the first data release of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) Plane Survey (JPS), the JPS Public Release 1 (JPSPR1). JPS is an 850-um continuum survey of six fields in the northern inner Galactic Plane in a longitude range of l=7-63, made with the Sub-millimetre Common-User Bolometer Array 2 (SCUBA-2). This first data release consists of emission maps of the six JPS regions with an average pixel-to-pixel noise of 7.19 mJy beam^-1, when smoothed over the beam, and a compact-source catalogue containing 7,813 sources. The 95 per cent completeness limits of the catalogue are estimated at 0.04 Jy beam^-1 and 0.3 Jy for the peak and integrated flux densities, respectively. The emission contained in the compact-source catalogue is 42 +- 5 per cent of the total and, apart from the large-scale (greater than 8') emission, there is excellent correspondence with features in the 500-um Herschel maps. We find that, with two-dimensional matching, 98 +- 2 per cent of sources within the fields centred at l=20, 30, 40 and 50 are associated with molecular clouds, with 91 +- 3 per cent of the l=30 and 40 sources associated with dense molecular clumps. Matching the JPS catalogue to Herschel 70-um sources, we find that 38 +- 1 per cent of sources show evidence of ongoing star formation. The images and catalogue will be a valuable resource for studies of star formation in the Galaxy and the role of environment and spiral arms in the star formation process., Comment: 22 pages, 18 figures, 4 tables. Full version of Table 3 available from http://www.canfar.phys.uvic.ca/vosui/#/JPSPR1 Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

We present 450 and 850 micron submillimetre continuum observations of the IC5146 star-forming region taken as part of the JCMT Gould Belt Survey. We investigate the location of bright submillimetre (clumped) emission with the larger-scale molecular cloud through comparison with extinction maps, and find that these denser structures correlate with higher cloud column density. Ninety-six individual submillimetre clumps are identified using FellWalker and their physical properties are examined. These clumps are found to be relatively massive, ranging from 0.5to 116 MSun with a mean mass of 8 MSun and a median mass of 3.7 MSun. A stability analysis for the clumps suggest that the majority are (thermally) Jeans stable, with M/M_J < 1. We further compare the locations of known protostars with the observed submillimetre emission, finding that younger protostars, i.e., Class 0 and I sources, are strongly correlated with submillimetre peaks and that the clumps with protostars are among the most Jeans unstable. Finally, we contrast the evolutionary conditions in the two major star-forming regions within IC5146: the young cluster associated with the Cocoon Nebula and the more distributed star formation associated with the Northern Streamer filaments. The Cocoon Nebula appears to have converted a higher fraction of its mass into dense clumps and protostars, the clumps are more likely to be Jeans unstable, and a larger fraction of these remaining clumps contain embedded protostars. The Northern Streamer, however, has a larger number of clumps in total and a larger fraction of the known protostars are still embedded within these clumps., Comment: 30 pages, 11 figures, 8 tables, accepted by ApJ

[Abridged] We present spectroscopic observations in H$_{2}$O, CO and related species with \textit{Herschel} HIFI and PACS, as well as ground-based follow-up with the JCMT and APEX in CO, HCO$^{+}$ and isotopologues, of a sample of 49 nearby ($d<$500\,pc) candidate protostars. These data are used to study the outflow and envelope properties of these sources. We also compile their continuum SEDs in order to constrain their physical properties. Water emission is dominated by shocks associated with the outflow, rather than the cooler, slower entrained outflowing gas probed by ground-based CO observations. These shocks become less energetic as sources evolve from Class 0 to Class I. The fraction of mass in the outflow relative to the total envelope (i.e. $M_{\mathrm{out}}/M_{\mathrm{env}}$) remains broadly constant between Class 0 and I. The median value ($\sim$1$\%$) is consistent with a core to star formation efficiency on the order of 50$\%$ and an outflow duty cycle on the order of 5$\%$. Entrainment efficiency, as probed by $F_{\mathrm{CO}}/\dot{M}_{\mathrm{acc}}$, is also invariant with source properties and evolutionary stage. The median value (6.3\kms{}) suggests an entrainment efficiency of between 30 and 60$\%$ if the wind is launched at $\sim$1AU. $L$[O\,{\sc i}] is strongly correlated with $L_{\mathrm{bol}}$ but not with $M_{\mathrm{env}}$, while low-$J$ CO is more closely correlated with the latter than the former. This suggests that [O\,{\sc i}] traces the present-day accretion activity while CO traces time-averaged accretion over the dynamical timescale of the outflow. $L$[O\,{\sc i}] does not vary from Class 0 to Class I, unlike CO and H$_{2}$O. This is likely due to the ratio of atomic to molecular gas in the wind increasing as the source evolves, balancing out the decrease in mass accretion rate. Infall signatures are detected in HCO$^{+}$ and H$_{2}$O in a few sources., Comment: Accepted to A&A, version after language editor corrections. 47 pages, 18 figures, 15 tables. The figures have been converted to pdf due to file-size considerations, which may lead to some degradation

We present the physical and evolutionary properties of prestellar and protostellar clumps in the Herschel Infrared GALactic plane survey (Hi-GAL) in two large areas centered in the Galactic plane and covering the tips of the long Galactic bar at the intersection with the spiral arms. The areas fall in the longitude ranges 19 < l < 33 and 340 < l < 350, while latitude is -1 < b < 1. Newly formed high mass stars and prestellar objects are identified and their properties derived and compared. A study is also presented on five giant molecular complexes at the further edge of the bar. The star-formation rate was estimated from the quantity of proto-stars expected to form during the collapse of massive turbulent clumps into star clusters. This new method was developed by applying a Monte Carlo procedure to an evolutionary model of turbulent cores and takes into account the wide multiplicity of sources produced during the collapse. The star-formation rate density values at the tips are 1.2 +- 0.3 10-3 Msol/yr/kpc2 and 1.5+-0.3 10-3 Msol/yr/kpc2 in the first and fourth quadrant, respectively. The same values estimated on the entire field of view, that is including the tips of the bar and background and foreground regions, are 0.9+-0.2 10-3 Msol/yr/kpc2 and 0.8+-0.2 10-3 Msol/yr/kpc2. The conversion efficiency is approximately 0.8% in the first quadrant and 0.5% in the fourth quadrant, and does not show a significant difference in proximity of the bar. The star forming regions identified through CO contours at the further edge of the bar show star-formation rate densities larger than the surrounding regions but their conversion efficiencies are comparable. Our results suggest that the star-formation activity at the bar is due to a large amount of dust and molecular material rather than being due to a triggering process., Comment: 16 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

We present an analysis of the effect of feedback from O- and B-type stars with data from the integral field spectrograph MUSE mounted on the Very Large Telescope of pillar-like structures in the Carina Nebular Complex, one of the most massive star-forming regions in the Galaxy. For the observed pillars, we compute gas electron densities and temperatures maps, produce integrated line and velocity maps of the ionised gas, study the ionisation fronts at the pillar tips, analyse the properties of the single regions, and detect two ionised jets originating from two distinct pillar tips. For each pillar tip we determine the incident ionising photon flux $Q_\mathrm{0,pil}$ originating from the nearby massive O- and B-type stars and compute the mass-loss rate $\dot{M}$ of the pillar tips due to photo-evaporation caused by the incident ionising radiation. We combine the results of the Carina data set with archival MUSE data of a pillar in NGC 3603 and with previously published MUSE data of the Pillars of Creation in M16, and with a total of 10 analysed pillars, find tight correlations between the ionising photon flux and the electron density, the electron density and the distance from the ionising sources, and the ionising photon flux and the mass-loss rate. The combined MUSE data sets of pillars in regions with different physical conditions and stellar content therefore yield an empirical quantification of the feedback effects of ionising radiation. In agreement with models, we find that $\dot{M}\propto Q_\mathrm{0,pil}^{1/2}$., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS, 36 pages, 30 figures

We present the JCMT Gould Belt Survey's first look results of the southern extent of the Orion A Molecular Cloud ($\delta \leq -5\mathrm{:}31\mathrm{:}27.5$). Employing a two-step structure identification process, we construct individual catalogues for large-scale regions of significant emission labelled as islands and smaller-scale subregions called fragments using the 850 $\mu$m continuum maps obtained using SCUBA-2. We calculate object masses, sizes, column densities, and concentrations. We discuss fragmentation in terms of a Jeans instability analysis and highlight interesting structures as candidates for follow-up studies. Furthermore, we associate the detected emission with young stellar objects (YSOs) identified by Spitzer and Herschel. We find that although the population of active star-forming regions contains a wide variety of sizes and morphologies, there is a strong positive correlation between the concentration of an emission region and its calculated Jeans instability. There are, however, a number of highly unstable subregions in dense areas of the map that show no evidence of star formation. We find that only $\sim$72\% of the YSOs defined as Class 0+I and flat-spectrum protostars coincide with dense 850 $\mu$m emission structures (column densities $>3.7\times10^{21}\mathrm{\:cm}^{-2}$). The remaining 28\% of these objects, which are expected to be embedded in dust and gas, may be misclassified. Finally, we suggest that there is an evolution in the velocity dispersion of young stellar objects such that sources which are more evolved are associated with higher velocities., Comment: 31 Pages, 19 Figures, Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS)

The dust emissivity spectral index, $\beta$, is a critical parameter for deriving the mass and temperature of star-forming structures, and consequently their gravitational stability. The $\beta$ value is dependent on various dust grain properties, such as size, porosity, and surface composition, and is expected to vary as dust grains evolve. Here we present $\beta$, dust temperature, and optical depth maps of the star-forming clumps in the Perseus Molecular Cloud determined from fitting SEDs to combined Herschel and JCMT observations in the 160 $\mu$m, 250 $\mu$m, 350 $\mu$m, 500 $\mu$m, and 850 $\mu$m bands. Most of the derived $\beta$, and dust temperature values fall within the ranges of 1.0 - 2.7 and 8 - 20 K, respectively. In Perseus, we find the $\beta$ distribution differs significantly from clump to clump, indicative of grain growth. Furthermore, we also see significant, localized $\beta$ variations within individual clumps and find low $\beta$ regions correlate with local temperature peaks, hinting at the possible origins of low $\beta$ grains. Throughout Perseus, we also see indications of heating from B stars and embedded protostars, as well evidence of outflows shaping the local landscape., Comment: Accepted to ApJ, 15 figures, 3 tables

We present SCUBA-2 450{\mu}m and 850{\mu}m observations of the W40 complex in the Serpens-Aquila region as part of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) Gould Belt Survey (GBS) of nearby star-forming regions. We investigate radiative heating by constructing temperature maps from the ratio of SCUBA-2 fluxes using a fixed dust opacity spectral index, {\beta} = 1.8, and a beam convolution kernel to achieve a common 14.8" resolution. We identify 82 clumps ranging between 10 and 36K with a mean temperature of 20{\pm}3K. Clump temperature is strongly correlated with proximity to the external OB association and there is no evidence that the embedded protostars significantly heat the dust. We identify 31 clumps that have cores with densities greater than 105cm{^{-3}}. Thirteen of these cores contain embedded Class 0/I protostars. Many cores are associated with bright-rimmed clouds seen in Herschel 70 {\mu}m images. From JCMT HARP observations of the 12CO 3-2 line, we find contamination of the 850{\mu}m band of up to 20 per cent. We investigate the free-free contribution to SCUBA-2 bands from large-scale and ultracompact H ii regions using archival VLA data and find the contribution is limited to individual stars, accounting for 9 per cent of flux per beam at 450 {\mu}m or 12 per cent at 850 {\mu}m in these cases. We conclude that radiative heating has potentially influenced the formation of stars in the Dust Arc sub-region, favouring Jeans stable clouds in the warm east and fragmentation in the cool west., Comment: 27 pages, 25 figures, 7 tables, 3 online catalogues

(Abridged) We present the first public release of high-quality data products (DR1) from Hi-GAL, the {\em Herschel} infrared Galactic Plane Survey. Hi-GAL is the keystone of a suite of continuum Galactic Plane surveys from the near-IR to the radio, and covers five wavebands at 70, 160, 250, 350 and 500 micron, encompassing the peak of the spectral energy distribution of cold dust for 8 < T < 50K. This first Hi-GAL data release covers the inner Milky Way in the longitude range 68{\deg} > l > -70{\deg} in a |b|<1{\deg} latitude strip. Photometric maps have been produced with the ROMAGAL pipeline, that optimally capitalizes on the excellent sensitivity and stability of the bolometer arrays of the {\em Herschel} PACS and SPIRE photometric cameras, to deliver images of exquisite quality and dynamical range, absolutely calibrated with {\em Planck} and {\em IRAS}, and recovering extended emission at all wavelengths and all spatial scales. The compact source catalogues have been generated with the CuTEx algorithm, specifically developed to optimize source detection and extraction in the extreme conditions of intense and spatially varying background that are found in the Galactic Plane in the thermal infrared. Hi-GAL DR1 images will be accessible via a dedicated web-based image cutout service. The DR1 Compact Source Catalogues are delivered as single-band photometric lists containing, in addition to source position, peak and integrated flux and source sizes, a variety of parameters useful to assess the quality and reliability of the extracted sources, caveats and hints to help this assessment are provided. Flux completeness limits in all bands are determined from extensive synthetic source experiments and depend on the specific line of sight along the Galactic Plane. Hi-GAL DR1 catalogues contain 123210, 308509, 280685, 160972 and 85460 compact sources in the five bands, respectively., Comment: Astronomy & Astrophysics, accepted

Hydrides are simple compounds containing one or a few hydrogen atoms bonded to a heavier atom. They are fundamental precursor molecules in cosmic chemistry and many hydride ions have become observable in high quality for the first time thanks to the Herschel Space Observatory. Ionized hydrides, such as CH+ and OH+, and also HCO+ that affect the chemistry of molecules such as water, provide complementary information on irradiation by far UV (FUV) or X-rays and gas temperature. The targeted lines of CH+, OH+, H2O+, C+ and CH are detected mostly in blue-shifted absorption. H3O+ and SH+ are detected in emission and only toward some high-mass objects. The observed line parameters and correlations suggest two different origins, related to gas entrained by the outflows and to the circumstellar envelope. The column density ratios of CH+/OH+ are estimated from chemical slab models, assuming that the H2 density is given by the specific density model of each object at the beam radius. For the low-mass YSOs the observed ratio can be reproduced for an FUV flux of 2-400 times the ISRF at the location of the molecules. In two high-mass objects, the UV flux is 20-200 times the ISRF derived from absorption lines, and 300-600 ISRF using emission lines. If the FUV flux required for low-mass objects originates at the central protostar, a substantial FUV luminosity, up to 1.5 L_sun, is required. There is no molecular evidence for X-ray induced chemistry in the low-mass objects on the observed scales of a few 1000 AU. For high-mass regions, the FUV flux required to produce the observed molecular ratios is smaller than the unattenuated flux expected from the central object(s) at the Herschel beam radius. This is consistent with an FUV flux reduced by circumstellar extinction or by bloating of the protostar., Comment: 40 pages, 97 figures, accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysics

The JCMT Gould Belt Legacy Survey obtained SCUBA-2 observations of dense cores within three sub-regions of Orion B: LDN 1622, NGC 2023/2024, and NGC 2068/2071, all of which contain clusters of cores. We present an analysis of the clustering properties of these cores, including the two-point correlation function and Cartwright's Q parameter. We identify individual clusters of dense cores across all three regions using a minimal spanning tree technique, and find that in each cluster, the most massive cores tend to be centrally located. We also apply the independent M-Sigma technique and find a strong correlation between core mass and the local surface density of cores. These two lines of evidence jointly suggest that some amount of mass segregation in clusters has happened already at the dense core stage., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 22 pages, 11 figures

We present the $^{13}$CO/C$^{18}$O (J=3-2) Heterodyne Inner Milky Way Plane Survey (CHIMPS) which has been carried out using the Heterodyne Array Receiver Program on the 15 m James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) in Hawaii. The high-resolution spectral survey currently covers |b| < 0.5 deg and 28 < l < 46 deg, with an angular resolution of 15 arcsec in 0.5 km/s velocity channels. The spectra have a median rms of $\sim$ 0.6 K at this resolution, and for optically thin gas at an excitation temperature of 10 K, this sensitivity corresponds to column densities of $N_{\mathrm{H}_{2}} \sim 3 \times 10^{20}\,$cm$^{-2}$ and $N_{\mathrm{H}_{2}} \sim 4 \times 10^{21}\,$cm$^{-2}$ for $^{13}$CO and C$^{18}$O, respectively. The molecular gas that CHIMPS traces is at higher column densities and is also more optically thin than in other publicly available CO surveys due to its rarer isotopologues, and thus more representative of the three-dimensional structure of the clouds. The critical density of the J=3-2 transition of CO is $\gtrsim 10^{4}$ cm$^{-3}$ at temperatures of $\leq 20$ K, and so the higher density gas associated with star formation is well traced. These data complement other existing Galactic plane surveys, especially the JCMT Galactic Plane Survey which has similar spatial resolution and column density sensitivity, and the Herschel infrared Galactic Plane Survey. In this paper, we discuss the observations, data reduction and characteristics of the survey, presenting integrated emission maps for the region covered. Position-velocity diagrams allow comparison with Galactic structure models of the Milky Way, and while we find good agreement with a particular four arm model, there are some significant deviations., Comment: Accepted by MNRAS, 15 pages, 9 figures

We present a first look at the SCUBA-2 observations of three sub-regions of the Orion B molecular cloud: LDN 1622, NGC 2023/2024, and NGC 2068/2071, from the JCMT Gould Belt Legacy Survey. We identify 29, 564, and 322 dense cores in L1622, NGC 2023/2024, and NGC 2068/2071 respectively, using the SCUBA-2 850 micron map, and present their basic properties, including their peak fluxes, total fluxes, and sizes, and an estimate of the corresponding 450 micron peak fluxes and total fluxes, using the FellWalker source extraction algorithm. Assuming a constant temperature of 20 K, the starless dense cores have a mass function similar to that found in previous dense core analyses, with a Salpeter-like slope at the high-mass end. The majority of cores appear stable to gravitational collapse when considering only thermal pressure; indeed, most of the cores which have masses above the thermal Jeans mass are already associated with at least one protostar. At higher cloud column densities, above 1-2 x 10^23 cm^-2, most of the mass is found within dense cores, while at lower cloud column densities, below 1 x 10^23 cm^-2, this fraction drops to 10% or lower. Overall, the fraction of dense cores associated with a protostar is quite small (<8%), but becomes larger for the densest and most centrally concentrated cores. NGC 2023 / 2024 and NGC 2068/2071 appear to be on the path to forming a significant number of stars in the future, while L1622 has little additional mass in dense cores to form many new stars., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; 28 pages, 19 figures. Data associated with the paper, including the full table 4, can be found at https://doi.org/10.11570/16.0003

Context. The classification of young stellar objects (YSOs) is typically done using the infrared spectral slope or bolometric temperature, but either can result in contamination of samples. More accurate methods to determine the evolutionary stage of YSOs will improve the reliability of statistics for the embedded YSO population and provide more robust stage lifetimes. Aims. We aim to separate the truly embedded YSOs from more evolved sources. Methods. Maps of HCO+ J=4-3 and C18O J=3-2 were observed with HARP on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) for a sample of 56 candidate YSOs in Perseus and Taurus in order to characterize emission from high (column) density gas. These are supplemented with archival dust continuum maps observed with SCUBA on the JCMT and Herschel PACS to compare the morphology of the gas and dust in the protostellar envelopes. The spatial concentration of HCO+ J=4-3 and 850 micron dust emission are used to classify the embedded nature of YSOs. Results. Approximately 30% of Class 0+I sources in Perseus and Taurus are not Stage I, but are likely to be more evolved Stage II pre-main sequence (PMS) stars with disks. An additional 16% are confused sources with an uncertain evolutionary stage. Conclusions. Separating classifications by cloud reveals that a high percentage of the Class 0+I sources in the Perseus star forming region are truly embedded Stage I sources (71%), while the Taurus cloud hosts a majority of evolved PMS stars with disks (68%). The concentration factor method is useful to correct misidentified embedded YSOs, yielding higher accuracy for YSO population statistics and Stage timescales. Current estimates (0.54 Myr) may overpredict the Stage I lifetime on the order of 30%, resulting in timescales of 0.38 Myr for the embedded phase., Comment: 33 pages, 21 figures, 6 tables, Accepted to be published in A&A

Water probes the dynamics in young stellar objects (YSOs) effectively, especially shocks in molecular outflows. It is a key molecule for exploring whether the physical properties of low-mass protostars can be extrapolated to massive YSOs. As part of the WISH key programme, we investigate the dynamics and the excitation conditions of shocks along the outflow cavity wall as function of source luminosity. Velocity-resolved Herschel-HIFI spectra of the H2O 988, 752, 1097 GHz and 12CO J=10-9, 16-15 lines were analysed for 52 YSOs with bolometric luminosities (L_bol) ranging from <1 to >10^5 L_sun. The profiles of the H2O lines are similar, indicating that they probe the same gas. We see two main Gaussian emission components in all YSOs: a broad component associated with non-dissociative shocks in the outflow cavity wall (cavity shocks) and a narrow component associated with quiescent envelope material. More than 60% of the total integrated intensity of the H2O lines (L_H2O) comes from the cavity shock component. The H2O line widths are similar for all YSOs, whereas those of 12CO 10-9 increase slightly with L_bol. The excitation analysis of the cavity shock component, performed with the non-LTE radiative transfer code RADEX, shows stronger 752 GHz emission for high-mass YSOs, likely due to pumping by an infrared radiation field. As previously found for CO, a strong correlation with slope unity is measured between log(L_H2O) and log(L_bol), which can be extrapolated to extragalactic sources. We conclude that the broad component of H2O and high-J CO lines originate in shocks in the outflow cavity walls for all YSOs, whereas lower-J CO transitions mostly trace entrained outflow gas. The higher UV field and turbulent motions in high-mass objects compared to their low-mass counterparts may explain the slightly different kinematical properties of 12CO 10-9 and H2O lines from low- to high-mass YSOs., Comment: Abridged abstract, 31 pages, 18 figures, 12 tables, accepted in Astronomy & Astrophysics

Performing ground-based submillimetre observations is a difficult task as the measurements are subject to absorption and emission from water vapour in the Earth's atmosphere and time variation in weather and instrument stability. Removing these features and other artifacts from the data is a vital process which affects the characteristics of the recovered astronomical structure we seek to study. In this paper, we explore two data reduction methods for data taken with the Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array-2 (SCUBA-2) at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). The JCMT Legacy Reduction 1 (JCMT LR1) and The Gould Belt Legacy Survey Legacy Release 1 (GBS LR1) reduction both use the same software, Starlink, but differ in their choice of data reduction parameters. We find that the JCMT LR1 reduction is suitable for determining whether or not compact emission is present in a given region and the GBS LR1 reduction is tuned in a robust way to uncover more extended emission, which better serves more in-depth physical analyses of star-forming regions. Using the GBS LR1 method, we find that compact sources are recovered well, even at a peak brightness of only 3 times the noise, whereas the reconstruction of larger objects requires much care when drawing boundaries around the expected astronomical signal in the data reduction process. Incorrect boundaries can lead to false structure identification or it can cause structure to be missed. In the JCMT LR1 reduction, the extent of the true structure of objects larger than a point source is never fully recovered., Comment: 26 Pages, 16 Figures, Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS)

We present early results from the JCMT Plane Survey (JPS), which has surveyed the northern inner Galactic plane between longitudes l=7 and l=63 degrees in the 850-{\mu}m continuum with SCUBA-2, as part of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope Legacy Survey programme. Data from the l=30 degree survey region, which contains the massive star-forming regions W43 and G29.96, are analysed after approximately 40% of the observations had been completed. The pixel-to-pixel noise is found to be 19 mJy/beam, after a smooth over the beam area, and the projected equivalent noise levels in the final survey are expected to be around 10 mJy/beam. An initial extraction of compact sources was performed using the FellWalker method resulting in the detection of 1029 sources above a 5-{\sigma} surface-brightness threshold. The completeness limits in these data are estimated to be around 0.2 Jy/beam (peak flux density) and 0.8 Jy (integrated flux density) and are therefore probably already dominated by source confusion in this relatively crowded section of the survey. The flux densities of extracted compact sources are consistent with those of matching detections in the shallower ATLASGAL survey. We analyse the virial and evolutionary state of the detected clumps in the W43 star-forming complex and find that they appear younger than the Galactic-plane average., Comment: Accepted by MNRAS

We have observed 99 mid-infrared-bright, massive young stellar objects and compact HII regions drawn from the Red MSX source (RMS) survey in the J=3$-$2 transition of $^{12}$CO and $^{13}$CO, using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. 89 targets are within 6 kpc of the Sun, covering a representative range of luminosities and core masses. These constitute a relatively unbiased sample of bipolar molecular outflows associated with massive star formation. Of these, 59, 17 and 13 sources (66, 19 and 15 percent) are found to have outflows, show some evidence of outflow, and have no evidence of outflow, respectively. The time-dependent parameters of the high-velocity molecular flows are calculated using a spatially variable dynamic timescale. The canonical correlations between the outflow parameters and source luminosity are recovered and shown to scale with those of low-mass sources. For coeval star formation we find the scaling is consistent with all the protostars in an embedded cluster providing the outflow force, with massive stars up to $\sim$30 M$_{\odot}$ generating outflows. Taken at face value, the results support the model of a scaled-up version of the accretion-related outflow-generation mechanism associated with discs and jets in low-mass objects with time-averaged accretion rates of $\sim$10$^{-3}$ M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ onto the cores. However, we also suggest an alternative model, in which the molecular outflow dynamics are dominated by the entrained mass and are unrelated to the details of the acceleration mechanism. We find no evidence that outflows contribute significantly to the turbulent kinetic energy of the surrounding dense cores.

We analyse C$^{18}$O ($J=3-$2) data from a sample of 99 infrared-bright massive young stellar objects (MYSOs) and compact HII regions that were identified as potential molecular-outflow sources in the Red MSX source (RMS) survey. We extract a distance limited (D $<$ 6 kpc) sample shown to be representative of star formation covering the transition between the source types. At the spatial resolution probed, Larson-like relationships are found for these cores, though the alternative explanation, that Larson's relations arise where surface-density-limited samples are considered, is also consistent with our data. There are no significant differences found between source properties for the MYSOs and HII regions, suggesting that the core properties are established prior to the formation of massive stars, which subsequently have little impact at the later evolutionary stages investigated. There is a strong correlation between dust-continuum and C$^{18}$O-gas masses, supporting the interpretation that both trace the same material in these IR-bright sources. A clear linear relationship is seen between the independently established core masses and luminosities. The position of MYSOs and compact HII regions in the mass-luminosity plane is consistent with the luminosity expected a cluster of protostars when using a $\sim$40 percent star-formation efficiency and indicates that they are at a similar evolutionary stage, near the end of the accretion phase.

We present 850$\mu$m and 450$\mu$m data from the JCMT Gould Belt Survey obtained with SCUBA-2 and characterise the dust attributes of Class I, Class II and Class III disk sources in L1495. We detect 23% of the sample at both wavelengths, with the detection rate decreasing through the Classes from I--III. The median disk mask is 1.6$\times 10^{-3}$M$_{\odot}$, and only 7% of Class II sources have disk masses larger than 20 Jupiter masses. We detect a higher proportion of disks towards sources with stellar hosts of spectral type K than spectral type M. Class II disks with single stellar hosts of spectral type K have higher masses than those of spectral type M, supporting the hypothesis that higher mass stars have more massive disks. Variations in disk masses calculated at the two wavelengths suggests there may be differences in dust opacity and/or dust temperature between disks with hosts of spectral types K to those with spectral type M., Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures plus Appendix. MNRAS accepted

In this paper we present the first observations of the Ophiuchus molecular cloud performed as part of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) Gould Belt Survey (GBS) with the SCUBA-2 instrument. We demonstrate methods for combining these data with previous HARP CO, Herschel, and IRAM N$_{2}$H$^{+}$ observations in order to accurately quantify the properties of the SCUBA-2 sources in Ophiuchus. We produce a catalogue of all of the sources found by SCUBA-2. We separate these into protostars and starless cores. We list all of the starless cores and perform a full virial analysis, including external pressure. This is the first time that external pressure has been included in this level of detail. We find that the majority of our cores are either bound or virialised. Gravitational energy and external pressure are on average of a similar order of magnitude, but with some variation from region to region. We find that cores in the Oph A region are gravitationally bound prestellar cores, while cores in the Oph C and E regions are pressure-confined. We determine that N$_{2}$H$^{+}$ is a good tracer of the bound material of prestellar cores, although we find some evidence for N$_{2}$H$^{+}$ freeze-out at the very highest core densities. We find that non-thermal linewidths decrease substantially between the gas traced by C$^{18}$O and that traced by N$_{2}$H$^{+}$, indicating the dissipation of turbulence at higher densities. We find that the critical Bonnor-Ebert stability criterion is not a good indicator of the boundedness of our cores. We detect the pre-brown dwarf candidate Oph B-11 and find a flux density and mass consistent with previous work. We discuss regional variations in the nature of the cores and find further support for our previous hypothesis of a global evolutionary gradient across the cloud from southwest to northeast, indicating sequential star formation across the region., Comment: 34 pages, 20 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present SCUBA-2 450micron and 850micron observations of the Serpens MWC 297 region, part of the JCMT Gould Belt Survey of nearby star-forming regions. Simulations suggest that radiative feedback influences the star-formation process and we investigate observational evidence for this by constructing temperature maps. Maps are derived from the ratio of SCUBA-2 fluxes and a two component model of the JCMT beam for a fixed dust opacity spectral index of beta = 1.8. Within 40 of the B1.5Ve Herbig star MWC 297, the submillimetre fluxes are contaminated by free-free emission with a spectral index of 1.03+-0.02, consistent with an ultra-compact HII region and polar winds/jets. Contamination accounts for 73+-5 per cent and 82+-4 per cent of peak flux at 450micron and 850micron respectively. The residual thermal disk of the star is almost undetectable at these wavelengths. Young Stellar Objects are confirmed where SCUBA-2 850micron clumps identified by the fellwalker algorithm coincide with Spitzer Gould Belt Survey detections. We identify 23 objects and use Tbol to classify nine YSOs with masses 0.09 to 5.1 Msun. We find two Class 0, one Class 0/I, three Class I and three Class II sources. The mean temperature is 15+-2K for the nine YSOs and 32+-4K for the 14 starless clumps. We observe a starless clump with an abnormally high mean temperature of 46+-2K and conclude that it is radiatively heated by the star MWC 297. Jeans stability provides evidence that radiative heating by the star MWC 297 may be suppressing clump collapse., Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures, 7 tables

We present CO, H2, HI and HISA distributions from a set of simulations of grand design spirals including stellar feedback, self-gravity, heating and cooling. We replicate the emission of the 2nd Galactic Quadrant by placing the observer inside the modelled galaxies and post process the simulations using a radiative transfer code, so as to create synthetic observations. We compare the synthetic datacubes to observations of the 2nd Quadrant of the Milky Way to test the ability of the current models to reproduce the basic chemistry of the Galactic ISM, as well as to test how sensitive such galaxy models are to different recipes of chemistry and/or feedback. We find that models which include feedback and self-gravity can reproduce the production of CO with respect to H2 as observed in our Galaxy, as well as the distribution of the material perpendicular to the Galactic plane. While changes in the chemistry/feedback recipes do not have a huge impact on the statistical properties of the chemistry in the simulated galaxies, we find that the inclusion of both feedback and self-gravity are crucial ingredients, as our test without feedback failed to reproduce all of the observables. Finally, even though the transition from H2 to CO seems to be robust, we find that all models seem to underproduce molecular gas, and have a lower molecular to atomic gas fraction than is observed. Nevertheless, our fiducial model with feedback and self-gravity has shown to be robust in reproducing the statistical properties of the basic molecular gas components of the ISM in our Galaxy., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS