Search

We have investigated the chemistry of dense interstellar clouds and found new bistable solutions in the nitrogen and carbon chemistries. We identify the autocatalytic processes that are present in the pure, reduced, chemical networks and, as previously found for oxygen chemistry, that He$^+$ plays an important role. The applicability of these results to astronomical environments is briefly discussed. The bistable solutions found for carbon chemistry occur for low densities and high ionization fractions that are not compatible with that found cold, dense clouds. Bistability in the pure nitrogen chemistry occurs for conditions that are relevant for prestellar cores in which significant CO depletion has taken place. We conclude that several autocatalyses are embedded in gas-phase interstellar chemistry and that many more are potentially present., 12 pages, 5 figures, 1 table

The effects of cosmic ray (CR) diffusion and finite Larmor radius (FLR) corrections have been studied on the linear gravitational instability of thermally conducting plasmas typically in the H ii regions of molecular clouds. The hydrodynamic fluid–fluid approach is considered for interacting CRs with gravitating, magnetized, and thermally conducting gas in molecular clouds. The magnetohydrodynamic fluid model is formulated considering CR pressure gradients, CR diffusion, and radiative and FLR effects in terms of particle Larmor radius. The dispersion relation of the gravitational instability is analytically derived using the normal mode analysis, and the effects of CRs and FLR corrections have been discussed in longitudinal and transverse modes. It is observed that in the absence of CRs, the FLR effects (magnetic viscosity) reduce the growth rate for wavenumber smaller than a critical value, and above it gets increased. However, the growth rate is strongly suppressed in the presence of combined CRs and FLR effects. The individual behaviour of FLR effects is observed to destabilize the growth rate of the gravitational instability in the presence of CR effects. The CR pressure decreases the growth rates of the gravitational and thermal instabilities, whereas parallel CR diffusion enhances the growth rate of the gravitational instability. The Jeans length of the gravitating gas cloud gets increased due to an increase in the CR-to-gas pressure ratio. It is found that the gravitational collapse of the system is supported by high-energy (above knee) CR particles with the Larmor radii comparable to the cloud size. The present results have been applied to understand the role of CRs and FLR corrections on the gravitational collapse in the H ii regions of molecular clouds.

Kinematics of the molecular clouds in the star forming complex M17 is studied using the high-resolution CO-line mapping data at resolution ($20" \sim 0.2$ pc) with the Nobeyama 45-m telescope. The northern molecular cloud of M17, which we call the molecular "lobe", is shown to have an elongated shell structure around a top-covered cylindrical cavity. The lobe is expanding at $\sim 5$ \kms in the minor axis direction, and at $ \sim 3/\cos \ i$ km s$^{-1}$ in the major axis direction, where $i$ is the inclination of the major axis. The kinetic energy of the expanding motion is on the order of $\sim 3\times 10^{49}$ ergs. We show that the lobe is a backyard structure having the common origin to the denser molecular "horn" flowing out from NGC 6618 toward the south, so that the lobe and horn compose a bipolar outflow. Intensity distributions across the lobe and horn show a double-peak profile typical for a cylinder around a cavity. Position-velocity diagrams (PVD) across the lobe and horn exhibit open ring structure with the higher- and/or lower-velocity side(s) being lacking or faded. This particular PVD behavior can be attributed to outflow in a conical cylinder with the flow velocity increasing toward the lobe and horn axes., Comment: Accepted for MNRAS, 10 pages, 13 figures

Filamentary structures identified in far-infrared observations of molecular clouds are typically found to have full-widths at half-maximum $\sim\!0.1$ pc. However, the physical explanation for this phenomenon is currently uncertain. We use hydrodynamic simulations of cylindrically-symmetric converging flows to show that the full-width at half-maximum of the resulting filament's surface density profile, FWHM$_{\Sigma}$, is closely related to the location of the accretion shock, where the inflow meets the boundary of the filament. For inflow Mach Number, ${\cal M}$, between 1 and 5, filament FWHM$_{\Sigma}$s fall in the range $0.03$ pc $\lesssim$ FWHM$_{\Sigma} \lesssim 0.3$ pc, with higher ${\cal M}$ resulting in narrower filaments. A large sample of filaments, seen at different evolutionary stages and with different values of ${\cal M}$, naturally results in a peaked distribution of FWHM$_{\Sigma}$s similar in shape to that obtained from far-infrared observations of molecular clouds. However, unless the converging flows are limited to ${\cal M} \lesssim 3$, the peak of the distribution of FWHM$_{\Sigma}$s is below the observed $\sim 0.1$ pc., Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures. MNRAS accepted

It is a fact that interstellar formation processes are thermodynamically affected. Based on this, the seven heterocycles; imidazole, pyridine, pyrimidine, pyrrole, quinoline, isoquinoline and furan that have been searched for from different astronomical sources with only upper limits of their column density determined without any successful detection remain the best candidates for astronomical observation with respect to their isomers. These molecules are believed to be formed on the surface of the interstellar dust grains and as such, they are susceptible to interstellar hydrogen bonding. In this study, a two way approach using ab initio quantum chemical simulations is considered in optimizing the searches for these molecules in interstellar medium. Firstly, these molecules and their isomers are subjected to the effect of interstellar hydrogen bonding. Secondly, the deuterated analogues of these heterocycles are examined for their possible detectability. From the results, all the heterocycles except furan are found to be strongly bonded to the surfaces of the interstellar dust grains thereby reducing their abundances, thus contributing to their unsuccessful detection. Successful detection of furan remains highly feasible. With respect to their D-analogues, the computed Boltzmann factor indicates that they are formed under the dense molecular cloud conditions where major deuterium fractionation dominates implying very high D/H ratio above the cosmic D/H ratio which suggests the detectability of these deuterated species., Comment: Accepted for publication in "Advances in Space Research"

(Abridged) Physical processes such as accretion shocks are thought to be common in the protostellar phase, where the envelope component is still present, and they can release molecules from the dust to the gas phase, altering the original chemical composition of the disk. Consequently, the study of accretion shocks is essential for a better understanding of the physical processes at disk scales and their chemical output. The purpose of this work is to assess the characteristics of accretion shocks traced by sulfur-related species. We present ALMA high angular resolution observations (0.1") of the Class I protostar Oph-IRS 44. The continuum emission at 0.87 mm is observed, together with sulfur-related species such as SO, SO$_{2}$, and $^{34}$SO$_{2}$. Six lines of SO$_{2}$, two lines of $^{34}$SO$_{2}$, and one line of SO are detected toward IRS 44. The emission of all the detected lines peaks at ~0.1" (~14 au) from the continuum peak and we find infalling-rotating motions inside 30 au. However, only redshifted emission is seen between 50 and 30 au. Colder and more quiescent material is seen toward an offset region located at a distance of ~400 au from the protostar, and we do not find evidence of a Keplerian profile in these data. Accretion shocks are the most plausible explanation for the high temperatures, high densities, and velocities found for the SO$_{2}$ emission. When material enters the disk--envelope system, it generates accretion shocks that increase the dust temperature and desorb SO$_{2}$ molecules from dust grains. High-energy SO$_{2}$ transitions (~200 K) seem to be the best tracers of accretion shocks that can be followed up by future higher angular resolution ALMA observations and compared to other species to assess their importance in releasing molecules from the dust to the gas phase., Comment: 16 pages, 16 figures

The morphology of gas-rich disc galaxies at redshift ~1-3 is dominated by a few massive clumps. The process of formation or assembly of these clumps and their relation to molecular clouds in contemporary spiral galaxies are still unknown. Using simulations of isolated disc galaxies, we study how the structure of the interstellar medium and the stability regime of the discs change when varying the gas fraction. In all galaxies, the stellar component is the main driver of instabilities. However, the molecular gas plays a non-negligible role in the inter-clumps medium of gas-rich cases, and thus in the assembly of the massive clumps. At scales smaller than a few 100 pc, the Toomre-like disc instabilities are replaced by another regime, specially in the gas-rich galaxies. We find that galaxies at low gas fraction (10%) stand apart from discs with more gas, which all share similar properties on virtually all the aspects we explore. For gas fractions below approximately 20%, the clump-scale regime of instabilities disappears, only leaving the large-scale disc-driven regime. When translating the change of gas fraction to the cosmic evolution of galaxies, this transition marks the end of the clumpy phase of disc galaxies, and allows for the onset of spiral structures, as commonly found in the local Universe., 19 pages, MNRAS accepted

Young stellar clusters across nearly five orders of magnitude in mass appear to follow a power-law mass-radius relationship (MRR), $R_{\star} \propto M_{\star}^{\alpha}$, with $\alpha \approx 0.2 - 0.33$. We develop a simple analytic model for the cluster mass-radius relation. We consider a galaxy disc in hydrostatic equilibrium, which hosts a population of molecular clouds that fragment into clumps undergoing cluster formation and feedback-driven expansion. The model predicts a mass-radius relation of $R_{\star} \propto M_{\star}^{1/2}$ and a dependence on the kpc-scale gas surface density $R_{\star} \propto \Sigma_{\rm g}^{-1/2}$, which results from the formation of more compact clouds (and cluster-forming clumps within) at higher gas surface densities. This environmental dependence implies that the high-pressure environments in which the most massive clusters can form also induce the formation of clusters with the smallest radii, thereby shallowing the observed MRR at high-masses towards the observed $R_{\star} \propto M_{\star}^{1/3}$. At low cluster masses, relaxation-driven expansion induces a similar shallowing of the MRR. We combine our predicted MRR with a simple population synthesis model and apply it to a variety of star-forming environments, finding good agreement. Our model predicts that the high-pressure formation environments of globular clusters at high redshift naturally led to the formation of clusters that are considerably more compact than those in the local Universe, thereby increasing their resilience to tidal shock-driven disruption and contributing to their survival until the present day., Comment: Accepted to MNRAS. Revised model incorporates a new dependence on Toomre Q

We present a study of emission lines of small hydrocarbons C2H and c-C3H2, and COMs precursors H2CO and CH3OH in order to better understand the possible chemical link between the molecular abundances and UV radiation field in photodissociation regions (PDRs). We study two PDRs around extended and compact H ii regions with G ≤ 50 Habings in the S235 star-forming complex. We find the highest abundances of both hydrocarbons on the edges of molecular clumps, while c-C3H2 is also abundant in the low-density expanding PDR around compact H ii region S235 A. We see the highest methanol column density towards the positions with the UV field G ≈ 20−30 Habings and explain them by reactive desorption from the dust grains. The $N_{\rm C_2H}/N_{\rm CH_3OH}$ ratio is lower by a factor of few or the order of magnitude in comparison with the Horsehead and Orion Bar PDRs. The ratio is similar to the value observed in hot corinos in the Perseus cloud. We conclude that ion-molecular and grain surface chemical routes rule the molecular abundances in the PDRs, and the PDRs inherit molecular abundances from the previous dark stage of molecular cloud evolution in spite of massive stars already emitting in optics.

We present a novel scenario for the growth of dust grains in galaxies at high-redshift ($z\sim 6$). In our model, the mechanical feedback from massive star clusters evolving within high-density pre-enriched media allows to pile-up a large amount of matter into massive supershells. If the gas metallicity ($\geq$ Z$_{\odot}$), number density ($\geq 10^6$ cm$^{-3}$) and dust-to-gas mass ratio ($\sim 1/150 \times Z$) within the supershell are sufficiently large, such supershells may become optically thick to the starlight emerging from their host star clusters and even to radiation from the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). Based on semi-analytic models, we argue that this mechanism, occurring in the case of massive ($\geq 10^7$ M$_{\odot}$) molecular clouds hosting $\geq 10^6$ M$_{\odot}$ star clusters, allows a large mass of gas and dust to acquire a temperature below that of the CMB, whereupon dust grain growth may occur with ease. In galaxies with total stellar mass $M_{*}$, grain growth within supershells may increase the dust mass by $\sim 10^6$ M$_{\odot}$ $(M_{*}/10^{8}$ M$_{\odot}$)., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication by MNRAS

By performing three-dimensional radiation hydrodynamics simulations, we study the formation of young massive star clusters (YMCs, $M_{*}>10^4~M_{\odot}$) in clouds with the surface density ranging from $\Sigma_{\rm cl} = 80$ to $3200~M_{\odot}\;{\rm pc^{-2}}$. We find that photoionization feedback suppresses star formation significantly in clouds with low surface density. Once the initial surface density exceeds $\sim 100~M_{\odot}\;{\rm pc^{-2}}$ for clouds with $M_{\rm cl}=10^{6}~M_{\odot}$ and $Z= Z_{\odot}$, most of the gas is converted into stars because the photoionization feedback is inefficient in deep gravitational potential. In this case, the star clusters are massive and gravitationally bounded as YMCs. The transition surface density increases as metallicity decreases, and it is $\sim 350~M_{\odot}\;{\rm pc^{-2}}$ for $Z=10^{-2}~Z_{\odot}$. We show that more than 10 percent of star-formation efficiency (SFE) is needed to keep a star cluster gravitationally bounded even after the disruption of a cloud. Also, we develop a semi-analytical model reproducing the SFEs obtained in our simulations. We find that the SFEs are fit with a power-law function with the dependency $\propto \Sigma_{\rm cl}^{1/2}$ for low-surface density and rapidly increases at the transition surface densities. The conditions of the surface density and the metallicity match recent observations of giant molecular clouds forming YMCs in nearby galaxies., Comment: 28 pages, 28 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

We report here the first detection in the interstellar medium of the cyanomidyl radical (HNCN). Using the Yebes 40m and the IRAM 30m telescopes, we have targeted the doublets of the $N$=2$-$1, 4$-$3, 5$-$4, 6$-$5, and 7$-$6 transitions of HNCN toward the molecular cloud G+0.693-0.027. We have detected three unblended lines of HNCN, these are the $N$=6$-$5 doublet and one line of the $N$=4$-$3 transition. Additionally we present one line of the $N$=5$-$4 transition partially blended with emission from other species. The Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium best fit to the data gives a molecular abundance of (0.91$\pm$0.05)$\times$10$^{-10}$ with respect to H$_2$. The relatively low abundance of this species in G+0.693-0.027, and its high reactivity, suggest that HNCN is possibly produced by gas-phase chemistry. Our work shows that this highly reactive molecule is present in interstellar space, and thus it represents a plausible precursor of larger prebiotic molecules with the NCN backbone such as cyanamide (NH$_2$CN), carbodiimide (HNCNH) and formamidine (NH$_2$CHNH)., Accepted in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters

—Positional and kinematic parameters of hypergiants HD 168607 B8.5 Ia-0, HD 168625 B5.0 Ia-0, Schulte 12 B4.0 Ia-0, and 6 Cas A A2.5 Ia-0 belonging to OB associations do not indicate that they are ejected from their formation regions in molecular clouds, and the field hypergiant HD 183143 B7 Ia-0 located in the gap between spiral arms does not show anomalously high velocity relative to the stellar and gas neighborhood. We give two examples of the refinement of the distance to stars from the interstellar line profiles in their spectra.

We present results based on ${2{^{\prime \prime}_{.}}5}$-resolution observations using the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillmeter Array (ALMA) of the Galactic center molecular cloud G−0.02−0.07, or the 50 km s−1 molecular cloud (50 MC), in the SO (NJ = 22–11) line and 86 GHz continuum emission, the combination of which is considered to trace “hot molecular core candidates” (HMCCs) appearing in the early stage of massive-star formation. In the 86 GHz continuum image, we identified nine dust cores in the central part of the 50 MC, in which four famous compact H ii regions are located. No new ultra-compact H ii regions were found. We also identified 28 HMCCs in the 50 MC with the SO line. The overall SO distribution had no clear positional correlation with the identified H ii regions. The HMCCs in the 50 MC showed a variety of association and non-association with dust and Class I CH3OH maser emissions. The variety suggests that they are not in a single evolutionary stage or environment. Nevertheless, the masses of the identified HMCCs were found to be well approximated by a single power law of their radii, MLTE/(M⊙) = 5.44 × 105 [r/(pc)]2.17 at Tex = 50–100 K. The derived HMCC masses were larger than those of the molecular cores with the same radii in the 50 MC, and also than those of the molecular clumps in the Galactic disk. Additional observations are needed to confirm the nature of these HMCCs in the 50 MC.

In the centres of the Milky Way and M83, the global environmental properties thought to control star formation are very similar. However, M83's nuclear star formation rate (SFR), as estimated by synchrotron and H-alpha emission, is an order of magnitude higher than the Milky Way's. To understand the origin of this difference we use ALMA observations of HCN (1-0) and HCO+ (1-0) to trace the dense gas at the size scale of individual molecular clouds (0.54", 12pc) in the inner ~500 pc of M83, and compare this to gas clouds at similar resolution and galactocentric radius in the Milky Way. We find that both the overall gas distribution and the properties of individual clouds are very similar in the two galaxies, and that a common mechanism may be responsible for instigating star formation in both circumnuclear rings. Given the considerable similarity in gas properties, the most likely explanation for the order of magnitude difference in SFR is time variability, with the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) currently being at a more quiescent phase of its star formation cycle. We show M83's SFR must have been an order of magnitude higher 5-7 Myr ago. M83's `starburst' phase was highly localised, both spatially and temporally, greatly increasing the feedback efficiency and ability to drive galactic-scale outflows. This highly dynamic nature of star formation and feedback cycles in galaxy centres means (i) modeling and interpreting observations must avoid averaging over large spatial areas or timescales, and (ii) understanding the multi-scale processes controlling these cycles requires comparing snapshots of a statistical sample of galaxies in different evolutionary stages., 31 pages, 22 figures, accepted by MNRAS

We present the results of the ethynyl (C2H) emission line observations towards the HII regions S255 and S257 and the molecular cloud between them. Radial profiles of line brightness, column density, and abundance of C2H are obtained. We show that the radial profile of the ethynyl abundance is almost flat towards the HII regions and drops by a factor of two towards the molecular cloud. At the same time, we find that the abundance of ethynyl is at maximum towards the point sources in the molecular cloud -- the stars with emission lines or emitting in X-ray. The line profiles are consistent with the assumption that both HII regions have front and back neutral walls that move relative to each other., 8 pages, accepted by Astronomy Reports

The origin of the radiation observed in the region of the supernova remnant RX J1713.7−3946, one of the brightest TeV emitters, has been debated since its discovery. The existence of atomic and molecular clouds in this object supports the idea that part of the GeV gamma-ray emission in this region originates from proton–proton collisions. However, the observed column density of protons derived from observations of the gas cannot explain the whole emission. Yet there could be a fraction of protons contained in fainter structures that have not been detected so far. Here we search for faint objects in the line of sight of RX J1713.7−3946 using the principle of light extinction and the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission Data Release 2 astrometric and photometric data. We reveal and locate with precision a number of dust clouds and note that only one appears to be in the vicinity of RX J1713.7−3946. We estimate the embedded mass to be Mdust = (7.0 ± 0.6) × 103 M⊙, which might be big enough to contain the missing protons. Finally, using the fact that the supernova remnant is expected to be located in a dusty environment and that there appears to be only one such structure in the vicinity of RX J1713.7−3946, we set a very precise constraint on the supernova remnant distance, at 1.12 ± 0.01 kpc. A dust cloud in the line of sight towards supernova remnant RX J1713.7−3946—identified using Gaia data —contributes to the GeV gamma-ray emission of the region.

We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) observations of $\mathrm{^{13}CO(J=1-0)}$ line and 104 GHz continuum emission from NGC 604, a giant HII region (GHR) in the nearby spiral galaxy M33. Our high spatial resolution images ( 3.2"$\times$ 2.4", corresponding to $13 \times 10$ pc physical scale) allow us to detect fifteen molecular clouds. We find spatial offsets between the $^{13}CO$ and 104 GHz continuum emission and also detect continuum emission near the centre of the GHR. The identified molecular clouds have sizes ranging from 5-21 pc, linewidths of 0.3-3.0 $\mathrm{kms^{-1}}$ and luminosity-derived masses of (0.4-80.5) $\times 10^3$ M$_{\bigodot}$. These molecular clouds are in near virial equilibrium, with a spearman correlation coefficient of 0.98. The linewidth-size relationship for these clouds is offset from the corresponding relations for the Milky Way and for NGC 300, although this may be an artefact of the dendrogram process., The article has 9 pages, 7 figures and 1 table

The problems of the study of small celestial bodies are an important component of modern space research. This applies both to the study of physicochemical and evolutionary parameters and the search for the genetic relationships between meteor showers and their parent bodies. An important area of research is the structural analysis of comets and asteroids. The relevance of the study of comet bodies lies in the fact that comets contain information about the protosolar molecular cloud. Comet nuclei are solid bodies that consist of dust (silicates, polymers, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, etc.) and ice of various compositions (water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, ammonia, etc.). Comet nuclei are fragile and have an irregular shape due to their low density, mass, and gravity. The study of the structural and physicochemical characteristics of comets is a relevant and important task for the development of an evolutionary theory. Using the developed method and special software for brightness analysis of digital images, we created structural models of comets and obtained brightness isophotes of their nuclei, heads, and tails. Since comet nuclei are elements of dynamic evolution and processes in the protodisk of the Solar System, study of the digital structure of comets will help improve the theory of the formation and evolution of the Solar System.

We use the PPMAP (Point Process MAPping) algorithm to re-analyse the \textit{Herschel} and SCUBA-2 observations of the L1688 and L1689 sub-regions of the Ophiuchus molecular cloud. PPMAP delivers maps with high resolution (here $14''$, corresponding to $\sim 0.01\,{\rm pc}$ at $\sim 140\,{\rm pc}$), by using the observations at their native resolutions. PPMAP also delivers more accurate dust optical depths, by distinguishing dust of different types and at different temperatures. The filaments and prestellar cores almost all lie in regions with $N_{\rm H_2}\gtrsim 7\times 10^{21}\,{\rm cm}^{-2}$ (corresponding to $A_{_{\rm V}}\gtrsim 7$). The dust temperature, $T$, tends to be correlated with the dust opacity index, $\beta$, with low $T$ and low $\beta$ tend concentrated in the interiors of filaments. The one exception to this tendency is a section of filament in L1688 that falls -- in projection -- between the two B stars, S1 and HD147889; here $T$ and $\beta$ are relatively high, and there is compelling evidence that feedback from these two stars has heated and compressed the filament. Filament {\sc fwhm}s are typically in the range $0.10\,{\rm pc}$ to $0.15\,{\rm pc}$. Most filaments have line densities in the range $25\,{\rm M_{_\odot}\,pc^{-1}}$ to $65\,{\rm M_{_\odot}\,pc^{-1}}$. If their only support is thermal gas pressure, and the gas is at the canonical temperature of $10\,{\rm K}$, the filaments are highly supercritical. However, there is some evidence from ammonia observations that the gas is significantly warmer than this, and we cannot rule out the possibility of additional support from turbulence and/or magnetic fields. On the basis of their spatial distribution, we argue that most of the starless cores are likely to disperse (rather than evolving to become prestellar)., Comment: 22 pages, 18 figures, Accepted for publication by MNRAS March 2021

We investigate the Hi envelope of the young, massive GMCs in the star-forming regions N48 and N49, which are located within the high column density Hi ridge between two kpc-scale supergiant shells, LMC 4 and LMC 5. New long-baseline Hi 21 cm line observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) were combined with archival shorter baseline data and single dish data from the Parkes telescope, for a final synthesized beam size of 24.75" by 20.48", which corresponds to a spatial resolution of ~ 6 pc in the LMC. It is newly revealed that the Hi gas is highly filamentary, and that the molecular clumps are distributed along filamentary Hi features. In total 39 filamentary features are identified and their typical width is ~ 21 (8-49) [pc]. We propose a scenario in which the GMCs were formed via gravitational instabilities in atomic gas which was initially accumulated by the two shells and then further compressed by their collision. This suggests that GMC formation involves the filamentary nature of the atomic medium., 22 pages, 4 tables, 16 figures

Stars form inside molecular cloud filaments from the competition of gravitational forces with turbulence and magnetic fields. The exact orientation of these filaments with the magnetic fields depends on the strength of these fields, the gravitational potential, and the line-of-sight (LOS) relative to the mean field. To disentangle these effects we employ three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamical numerical simulations that explore a wide range of initial turbulent and magnetic states, i.e., sub-Alfv\'enic to super-Alfv\'enic turbulence, with and without gravity. We use histogram of relative orientation (HRO) and the associated projected Rayleigh statistics (PRS) to study the orientation of density and, in order to compare with observations, the integrated density relative to the magnetic field. We find that in sub-Alfv\'enic systems the initial coherence of the magnetic is maintained inside the cloud and filaments form perpendicular to the field. This trend is not observed in super-Alfv\'enic models, where the lines are dragged by gravity and turbulence and filaments are mainly aligned to the field. The PRS analysis of integrated maps shows that LOS effects are important only for sub-Alfv\'enic clouds. When the LOS is perpendicular to the initial field orientation most of the filaments are perpendicular to the projected magnetic field. The inclusion of gravity increases the number of dense structures perpendicular to the magnetic field, reflected as lower values of the PRS for denser regions, regardless of whether the model is sub- or super-Alfv\'enic. The comparison of our results with observed molecular clouds reveal that most are compatible with sub-Alfv\'enic models., Comment: Paper accepted for publication in MNRAS

Of all the factors that influence star formation, magnetic fields are perhaps the least well understood. The goal of this paper is to characterize the 3D magnetic field properties of nearby molecular clouds through various methods of statistically analysing maps of polarized dust emission. Our study focuses on nine clouds, with data taken from the Planck Sky Survey as well as data from the Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope for Polarimetry observations of Vela C. We compare the distributions of polarization fraction (p), dispersion in polarization angles ($\mathcal {S}$), and hydrogen column density (NH) for each of our targeted clouds. To broaden the scope of our analysis, we compare the distributions of our clouds’ polarization observables with measurements from synthetic polarization maps generated from numerical simulations. We also use the distribution of polarization fraction measurements to estimate the inclination angle of each cloud’s cloud-scale magnetic field. We obtain a range of inclination angles associated with our clouds, varying from 16○ to 69○. We establish inverse correlations between p and both $\mathcal {S}$ and NH in almost every cloud, but we are unable to establish a statistically robust $\mathcal {S}$ versus NH trend. By comparing the results of these different statistical analysis techniques, we are able to propose a more comprehensive view of each cloud’s 3D magnetic field properties. These detailed cloud analyses will be useful in the continued studies of cloud-scale magnetic fields and the ways in which they affect star formation within these molecular clouds.

Radiative association (RA) of Al+ with H2 is the first step in the formation of AlH in gas phase and is here investigated theoretically. We use recent potential energy and dipole moment surfaces and a quantum approach based on the driven equations formalism for performing the dynamics for both the Al+-H2 and Al+-D2 systems. The obtained RA rate coefficients are compared with previous evaluations based on transition state theory and found to be orders of magnitude larger. They are also compared to those obtained recently for the similar systems Na+-H2/D2. The possible role played by RA of Al+ with H2 in the gas phase chemistry of dense molecular clouds is discussed.

Pulsars can act as an excellent probe of the Milky Way magnetic field. The average strength of the Galactic magnetic field component parallel to the line of sight can be estimated as $\langle B_\parallel \rangle = 1.232 \, \text{RM}/\text{DM}$, where $\text{RM}$ and $\text{DM}$ are the rotation and dispersion measure of the pulsar. However, this assumes that the thermal electron density and magnetic field of the interstellar medium are uncorrelated. Using numerical simulations and observations, we test the validity of this assumption. Based on magnetohydrodynamical simulations of driven turbulence, we show that the correlation between the thermal electron density and the small-scale magnetic field increases with increasing Mach number of the turbulence. We find that the assumption of uncorrelated thermal electron density and magnetic fields is valid only for subsonic and transsonic flows, but for supersonic turbulence, the field strength can be severely overestimated by using $1.232 \, \text{RM}/\text{DM}$. We then correlate existing pulsar observations from the Australia Telescope National Facility with regions of enhanced thermal electron density and magnetic fields probed by ${^{12} \mathrm {CO}}$ data of molecular clouds, magnetic fields from the Zeeman splitting of the 21 cm line, neutral hydrogen column density, and H$\alpha$ observations. Using these observational data, we show that the thermal electron density and magnetic fields are largely uncorrelated over kpc scales. Thus, we conclude that the relation $\langle B_\parallel \rangle = 1.232 \, \text{RM}/\text{DM}$ provides a good estimate of the magnetic field on Galactic scales but might break down on sub - kpc scales., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS; 18 pages (including one appendix), 13 figures (12 in the main text and 1 in the appendix), 6 tables in the main text

We present three-dimensional astrochemical simulations and synthetic observations of magnetised, turbulent, self-gravitating molecular clouds. We explore various galactic interstellar medium environments, including cosmic-ray ionization rates in the range of $\zeta_{\rm CR}=10^{-17}$-$10^{-14}\,{\rm s}^{-1}$, far-UV intensities in the range of $G_0=1$-$10^3$ and metallicities in the range of $Z=0.1$-$2\,{\rm Z}_{\odot}$. The simulations also probe a range of densities and levels of turbulence, including cases where the gas has undergone recent compression due to cloud-cloud collisions. We examine: i) the column densities of carbon species across the cycle of CII, CI and CO, along with OI, in relation to the HI-to-H$_2$ transition; ii) the velocity-integrated emission of [CII]~$158\mu$m, [$^{13}$CII]~$158\mu$m, [CI]~$609\mu$m and $370\mu$m, [OI]~$63\mu$m and $146\mu$m, and of the first ten $^{12}$CO rotational transitions; iii) the corresponding Spectral Line Energy Distributions; iv) the usage of [CII] and [OI]~$63\mu$m to describe the dynamical state of the clouds; v) the behavior of the most commonly used ratios between transitions of CO and [CI]; and vi) the conversion factors for using CO and CI as H$_2$-gas tracers. We find that enhanced cosmic-ray energy densities enhance all aforementioned line intensities. At low metallicities, the emission of [CII] is well connected with the H$_2$ column, making it a promising new H$_2$ tracer in metal-poor environments. The conversion factors of $X_{\rm CO}$ and $X_{\rm CI}$ depend on metallicity and the cosmic-ray ionization rate, but not on FUV intensity. In the era of ALMA, SOFIA and the forthcoming CCAT-prime telescope, our results can be used to understand better the behaviour of systems in a wide range of galactic and extragalactic environments., Comment: 33 pages, 24 figures, 3 tables. Submitted to MNRAS. Comments welcome!

Benzonitrile (c-C6H5CN, where ‘c’ indicates a cyclic structure), a polar proxy for benzene (c-C6H6), has the potential to serve as a highly convenient radio probe for aromatic chemistry, provided that this ring can be found in other astronomical sources beyond the molecule-rich prestellar cloud TMC-1. Here we present radio astronomical evidence of benzonitrile in four other prestellar, and possibly protostellar, sources: Serpens 1A, Serpens 1B, Serpens 2 and MC27/L1521F. These detections establish that benzonitrile is not unique to TMC-1; rather, aromatic chemistry appears to be widespread throughout the earliest stages of star formation, probably persisting at least until the initial formation of a protostar. The abundance of benzonitrile far exceeds predictions from models that well reproduce the abundances of carbon chains such as HC7N, a cyanpolyyne with the same heavy atoms, indicating that the chemistry responsible for planar carbon structures (as opposed to linear ones) in primordial sources is favourable but not well understood. The abundance of benzonitrile relative to carbon chain molecules displays sizable variations between sources within the Taurus and Serpens clouds, implying the importance of physical conditions and initial elemental reservoirs of the clouds themselves. Benzonitrile, a proxy for the aromatic ring molecule benzene, has now been detected at multiple locations in the Taurus and Serpens molecular clouds, suggesting a widespread aromatic chemistry in the interstellar medium. Chemical models underestimate the abundance of aromatic molecules, highlighting the need for further study.

Understanding the physics of turbulence is crucial for many applications, including weather, industry and astrophysics. In the interstellar medium1,2, supersonic turbulence plays a crucial role in controlling the gas density and velocity structure, and ultimately the birth of stars3–8. Here we present a simulation of interstellar turbulence with a grid resolution of 10,0483 cells that allows us to determine the position and width of the sonic scale (ls)—the transition from supersonic to subsonic turbulence. The simulation simultaneously resolves the supersonic and subsonic cascade, with the velocity as a function of scale, v(l) ∝ lp, where we measure psup = 0.49 ± 0.01 and psub = 0.39 ± 0.02, respectively. We find that ls agrees with the relation $${\ell }_{{\rm{s}}}={\phi }_{{\rm{s}}}{L\,}{{\mathcal{M}}}^{-1/{p}_{\sup }}$$ , where $${\mathcal{M}}$$ is the three-dimensional Mach number, L is either the driving scale of the turbulence or the diameter of a molecular cloud, and ϕs is a dimensionless factor of order unity. If L is the driving scale, we measure $${\phi }_{{\rm{s}}}=0.4{2}_{-0.09}^{+0.12}$$ , primarily because of the separation between the driving scale and the start of the supersonic cascade. For a supersonic cascade extending beyond the cloud scale, we get $${\phi }_{{\rm{s}}}=0.9{1}_{-0.20}^{+0.25}$$ . In both cases, ϕs ≲ 1, because we find that the supersonic cascade transitions smoothly to the subsonic cascade over a factor of 3 in scale, instead of a sharp transition. Our measurements provide quantitative input for turbulence-regulated models of filament structure and star formation in molecular clouds. A high-resolution simulation of interstellar turbulence determines the position and width of the transition from supersonic to subsonic turbulence, providing quantitative input for models of filament structure and star formation in molecular clouds.

The intermediate mass Herbig Ae star V1787 Ori is a member of the L1641 star-forming region in the Orion A molecular cloud. We report the detection of an M-type companion to V1787 Ori at a projected separation of 6.66" (corresponding to 2577 au), from the analysis of VLT/NACO adaptive optics $K_s$-band image. Using astrometric data from Gaia DR2, we show that V1787 Ori A and B share similar distance ($d$ $\sim$ 387 pc) and proper motion, indicating that they are physically associated. We estimate the spectral type of V1787 Ori B to be M5 $\pm$ 2 from color--spectral type calibration tables and template matching using SpeX spectral library. By fitting PARSEC models in the Pan-STARRS color-magnitude diagram, we find that V1787 Ori B has an age of 8.1$^{+1.7}_{-1.5}$ Myr and a mass of 0.39$^{+0.02}_{-0.05}$ $M_\odot$. We show that V1787 Ori is a pre-main sequence wide binary system with a mass ratio of 0.23. Such a low mass ratio system is rarely identified in Herbig Ae/Be binary systems. We conclude this work with a discussion on possible mechanisms for the formation of V1787 Ori wide binary system., 10 pages,3 tables, 5 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

We study the multi-phase medium in the vicinity of the active galactic nucleus Centaurus A (Cen A). Combined high-resolution observations with the ALMA and Chandra observatories indicate that the hot X-ray emitting plasma coexists with the warm and cold media in Cen A. This complex environment is a source of CO lines with great impact for its diagnostics. We present the images from the two above-mentioned instruments covering the nuclear region (diameter of 10'' i.e., ~180 pc), and we study the conditions for plasma thermal equilibrium and possible coexistence of cool clouds embedded within the hot X-ray emitting gas. Further, we demonstrate that the multi-phase medium originates naturally by the thermal instability (TI) arising due to the interaction of the high-energy radiation field from the nucleus with the ambient gas and dust. We demonstrate that cold gas clouds can coexist in the mutual contact with hot plasma, but even colder dusty molecular clouds have to be distanced by several hundred pc from the hot region. Finally, we propose a 3-D model of the appearance of the hot plasma and the CO line-emitting regions consistent with the Chandra image and we derive the integrated emissivity in specific molecular lines observed by ALMA from this model. To reproduce the observed images and the CO line luminosity the dusty shell has to be ~420 pc thick and located at ~1000 pc from the centre., 16 pages, 16 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS

With backwards orbit integration we estimate birth locations of young stellar associations and moving groups identified in the solar neighborhood that are younger than 70 Myr. The birth locations of most of these stellar associations are at smaller galactocentric radius than the Sun, implying that their stars moved radially outwards after birth. Exceptions to this rule include are the Argus and Octans associations which formed outside the Sun's Galactocentric radius. Variations in birth heights of the stellar associations suggest that they were born in a corrugated disk of molecular clouds, similar to that inferred from the current filamentary molecular cloud distribution and dust extinction maps. Multiple spiral arm features with different but near corotation pattern speeds and at different heights could account for the stellar association birth sites. We find that the young stellar associations are located in between peaks in the UV stellar velocity distribution for stars in the solar neighborhood. This would be expected if they were born in a spiral arm which perturbs stellar orbits that cross it. In contrast, stellar associations seem to be located near peaks in the vertical phase space distribution, suggesting that the gas in which stellar associations are born moves vertically together with the low velocity dispersion disk stars., Comment: The animated movie is available here: http://astro.pas.rochester.edu/~aquillen/figures/movie3D.gif

We present SiO J=2-1 maps of the Sgr B2 molecular cloud, which show shocked gas with a turbulent substructure comprising at least three cavities at velocities of [10,40] km s$^{-1}$ and an arc at velocities of [-20,10] km s$^{-1}$. The spatial anti-correlation of shocked gas at low and high velocities, and the presence of bridging features in position-velocity diagrams suggest that these structures formed in a cloud-cloud collision. Some of the known compact HII regions spatially overlap with sites of strong SiO emission at velocities of [40,85] km s$^{-1}$, and are between or along the edges of SiO gas features at [100,120] km s$^{-1}$, suggesting that the stars responsible for ionizing the compact HII regions formed in compressed gas due to this collision. We find gas densities and kinetic temperatures of the order of $n_{\rm H_2}\sim 10^5\rm cm^{-3}$ and $\sim$30 K, respectively, towards three positions of Sgr B2. The average values of the SiO relative abundances, integrated line intensities, and line widths are $\sim$10$^{-9}$, $\sim$11 K km s$^{-1}$, and $\sim$31 km s$^{-1}$, respectively. These values agree with those obtained with chemical models that mimic grain sputtering by C-type shocks. A comparison of our observations with hydrodynamical simulations shows that a cloud-cloud collision that took place $\lesssim$ 0.5 Myr ago can explain the density distribution with a mean column density of $\bar{N}_{\rm H_2}\gtrsim 5\times10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$, and the morphology and kinematics of shocked gas in different velocity channels. Colliding clouds are efficient at producing internal shocks with velocities $\sim$5-50 km $s^{-1}$. High-velocity shocks are produced during the early stages of the collision and can readily ignite star formation, while moderate- and low-velocity shocks are important over longer timescales and can explain the widespread SiO emission in Sgr B2., Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 22 pages, 17 figures. Movies of the simulations can be found here: https://tinyurl.com/y5bc3smn

We present compelling observational evidence of G133.50+9.01 being a bona fide cloud-cloud collision candidate with signatures of induced filament, core, and cluster formation. The CO molecular line observations reveal that the G133.50+9.01 complex is made of two colliding molecular clouds with systemic velocities, -16.9 km s-1 and -14.1 km s-1. The intersection of the clouds is characterised by broad bridging features characteristic of collision. The morphology of the shocked layer at the interaction front resembles an arc like structure with enhanced excitation temperature and H2 column density. A complex network of filaments is detected in the SCUBA 850 {\mu}m image with 14 embedded dense cores, all well correlated spatially with the shocked layer. A stellar cluster revealed through an over-density of identified Class I and II young stellar objects is found located along the arc in the intersection region corroborating with a likely collision induced origin., Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, Accepted for publication in the Main Journal of MNRAS

Magnetic fields are a dynamically important agent for regulating structure formation in the interstellar medium. The study of the relative orientation between the local magnetic field and gas (column-) density gradient has become a powerful tool to analyse the magnetic field's impact on the dense gas formation in the Galaxy. In this study, we perform numerical simulations of a non-gravitating, isothermal gas, where the turbulence is driven either solenoidally or compressively. We find that only simulations with an initially strong magnetic field (plasma-$��, accepted for publication by MNRAS

We present the first detection of ($Z$)-1,2-ethenediol, (CHOH)$_2$, the enol form of glycolaldehyde, in the interstellar medium towards the G+0.693-0.027 molecular cloud located in the Galactic Center. We have derived a column density of (1.8$\pm$0.1)$\times$10$^{13}$ cm$^{-2}$, which translates into a molecular abundance with respect to molecular hydrogen of 1.3$\times$10$^{-10}$. The abundance ratio between glycolaldehyde and ($Z$)-1,2-ethenediol is $\sim$5.2. We discuss several viable formation routes through chemical reactions from precursors such as HCO, H$_2$CO, CHOH or CH$_2$CHOH. We also propose that this species might be an important precursor in the formation of glyceraldehyde (HOCH$_2$CHOHCHO) in the interstellar medium through combination with the hydroxymethylene (CHOH) radical., Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters

17 pags., 16 figs., 2 tabs., 3 apps., Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is considered a good tracer of the dense molecular gas that serves as fuel for star formation. However, recent large-scale surveys of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) have detected extended HCN rotational line emission far from star-forming cores. Such observations often spectroscopically resolve the HCN J = 1-0 (partially also the J = 2-1 and 3-2) hyperfine structure (HFS). A precise determination of the physical conditions of the gas requires treating the HFS line overlap effects. Here, we study the HCN HFS excitation and line emission using nonlocal radiative transfer models that include line overlaps and new HFS-resolved collisional rate coefficients for inelastic collisions of HCN with both para-H2 and ortho-H2 (computed via the scaled-infinite order sudden approximation up to Tk = 500 K). In addition, we account for the role of electron collisions in the HFS level excitation. We find that line overlap and opacity effects frequently produce anomalous HCN J = 1-0 HFS line intensity ratios (i.e., inconsistent with the common assumption of the same Tex for all HFS lines) as well as anomalous HFS line width ratios. Line overlap and electron collisions also enhance the excitation of the higher J rotational lines. Our models explain the anomalous HCN J = 1-0 HFS spectra observed in the Orion Bar and Horsehead photodissociation regions. As shown in previous studies, electron excitation becomes important for molecular gas with H2 densities below a few 105 cm-3 and electron abundances above ∼10-5. We find that when electron collisions are dominant, the relative intensities of the HCN J = 1-0 HFS lines can be anomalous too. In particular, electron excitation can produce low-surface-brightness HCN emission from very extended but low-density gas in GMCs. The existence of such a widespread HCN emission component may affect the interpretation of the extragalactic relationship HCN luminosity versus star-formation rate. Alternatively, extended HCN emission may arise from dense star-forming cores and become resonantly scattered by large envelopes of lower density gas. There are two scenarios-namely, electron-assisted (weakly) collisionally excited versus scattering-that lead to different HCN J = 1-0 HFS intensity ratios, which can be tested on the basis of observations., We thank A. Faure for sharing his HCN-HFS + e rate coefficients in tabulated form. We warmly thank S. Cuadrado, J. Pety, and M. Gerin for providing the HCN J = 1–0 spectra of the Orion Bar and Horsehead, and for useful discussion on the HCN J = 1–0 HFS emission in Orion B. We thank our referee for concise and illuminating comments. J.R.G. and M.G.S.M. thank the Spanish MCINN for funding support under grant PID2019-106110GB-I00.

Tao-Chung Ching et al., We present 850 μm dust polarization observations of the massive DR21 filament from the B-fields In STar-forming Region Observations (BISTRO) survey, using the POL-2 polarimeter and the SCUBA-2 camera on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. We detect ordered magnetic fields perpendicular to the parsec-scale ridge of the DR21 main filament. In the subfilaments, the magnetic fields are mainly parallel to the filamentary structures and smoothly connect to the magnetic fields of the main filament. We compare the POL-2 and Planck dust polarization observations to study the magnetic field structures of the DR21 filament on 0.1–10 pc scales. The magnetic fields revealed in the Planck data are well-aligned with those of the POL-2 data, indicating a smooth variation of magnetic fields from large to small scales. The plane-of-sky magnetic field strengths derived from angular dispersion functions of dust polarization are 0.6–1.0 mG in the DR21 filament and ∼0.1 mG in the surrounding ambient gas. The mass-to-flux ratios are found to be magnetically supercritical in the filament and slightly subcritical to nearly critical in the ambient gas. The alignment between column density structures and magnetic fields changes from random alignment in the low-density ambient gas probed by Planck to mostly perpendicular in the high-density main filament probed by James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. The magnetic field structures of the DR21 filament are in agreement with MHD simulations of a strongly magnetized medium, suggesting that magnetic fields play an important role in shaping the DR21 main filament and subfilaments., This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) grant Nos. 11988101, U1931117, 11725313, and 12073061 and the CAS International Partnership Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences grant No. 114A11KYSB20160008. T.-C.C. is funded by Chinese Academy of Sciences Taiwan Young Talent Program grant No. 2018TW2JB0002. T.-C.C. and C.E. were supported by Special Funding for Advanced Users, budgeted and administrated by Center for Astronomical Mega-Science (CAMS), Chinese Academy of Sciences. K.P. is a Royal Society University Research Fellow, supported by grant No. URF\R1\211322. D.J. is supported by the National Research Council of Canada and by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Discovery Grant. P.M.K. is supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) in Taiwan through grants 109-2112-M-001-022 and 110-2112-M-001-057. C.W.L. is supported by the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (NRF-2019R1A2C1010851), and by the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT; Project No. 2022-1-840-05). T.H. is supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) through the Mid-career Research Program (2019R1A2C1087045). W.K. was supported by the NRF grant funded by the MSIT (2021R1F1A1061794). C.E. acknowledges the financial support from grant RJF/2020/000071 as a part of Ramanujan Fellowship awarded by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India. F.P. acknowledges support from the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI) under grant No. PID2019-105552RB-C43. M.T. is supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant Nos. 18H05442, 15H02063, and 22000005. J.K. is supported by JSPS KAKENHI grant No. 19K14775. L.F. and F.K. acknowledge the support by the MoST in Taiwan through grant 107-2119-M-001-031-MY3 and Academia Sinica through grant AS-IA-106-M03. L.F. acknowledges the support by the MoST in Taiwan through grants 111-2811-M-005-007 and 109-2112-M-005-003-MY3. C.L.H.H. acknowledges the support of the NAOJ Fellowship and JSPS KAKENHI grants 18K13586 and 20K14527. F.K. is supported by the Spanish program Unidad de Excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2020-001058-M, financed by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. K.Q. is partially supported by National Key R&D Program of China No. 2022YFA1603100, and acknowledges the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) grant U1731237. S.P.L. acknowledges grants from the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan 106-2119-M-007-021-MY3 and 109-2112-M-007-010-MY3. Y.D. acknowledges the support of JSPS KAKENHI grants 25247016 and 18H01250. Y.S.D. is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China for grant No. 2022YFA1605300, and NSFC grants Nos. 12273051, 11933003.

Methanol, one of the simplest complex organic molecules in the Interstellar Medium (ISM), has been shown to be present and extended in cold environments such as starless cores. We aim at studying methanol emission across several starless cores and investigate the physical conditions at which methanol starts to be efficiently formed, as well as how the physical structure of the cores and their surrounding environment affect its distribution. Methanol and C$^{18}$O emission lines at 3 mm have been observed with the IRAM 30m telescope within the large program "Gas phase Elemental abundances in Molecular CloudS" (GEMS) towards 66 positions across 12 starless cores in the Taurus Molecular Cloud. A non-LTE radiative transfer code was used to compute the column densities in all positions. We then used state-of-the-art chemical models to reproduce our observations. We have computed N(CH$_3$OH)/N(C$^{18}$O) column density ratios for all the observed offsets, and two different behaviours can be recognised: the cores where the ratio peaks at the dust peak, and the cores where the ratio peaks with a slight offset with respect to the dust peak ($\sim $10000 AU). We suggest that the cause of this behaviour is the irradiation on the cores due to protostars nearby which accelerate energetic particles along their outflows. The chemical models, which do not take into account irradiation variations, can reproduce fairly well the overall observed column density of methanol, but cannot reproduce the two different radial profiles observed. We confirm the substantial effect of the environment onto the distribution of methanol in starless cores. We suggest that the clumpy medium generated by protostellar outflows might cause a more efficient penetration of the interstellar radiation field in the molecular cloud and have an impact on the distribution of methanol in starless cores., Accepted for publication in A&A

Much like six-membered rings, five-membered rings are ubiquitous in organic chemistry, frequently serving as the building blocks for larger molecules, including many of biochemical importance. From a combination of laboratory rotational spectroscopy and a sensitive spectral line survey in the radio band toward the starless cloud core TMC-1, we report the astronomical detection of 1-cyano-1,3-cyclopentadiene (1-cyano-CPD, c-C5H5CN), a highly polar, cyano derivative of cyclopentadiene. The derived abundance of 1-cyano-CPD is far greater than predicted from astrochemical models that well reproduce the abundance of many carbon chains. This finding implies that either an important production mechanism or a large reservoir of aromatic material may need to be considered. The apparent absence of its closely related isomer, 2-cyano-1,3-cyclopentadiene, may arise from that isomer’s lower stability or may be indicative of a more selective pathway for formation of the 1-cyano isomer, perhaps one starting from acyclic precursors. The absence of N-heterocycles such as pyrrole and pyridine is discussed in light of the astronomical finding of 1-cyano-CPD. A five-membered carbon ring molecule, cyanocyclopentadiene, has been detected in a molecular cloud at a higher abundance than expected. This result from the GOTHAM survey indicates a rich aromatic chemistry in molecular clouds that is not fully understood theoretically.

We present models of CO(1-0) emission from Milky Way-mass galaxies at redshift zero in the FIRE-2 cosmological zoom-in simulations. We calculate the molecular abundances by post-processing the simulations with an equilibrium chemistry solver while accounting for the effects of local sources, and determine the emergent CO(1-0) emission using a line radiative transfer code. We find that the results depend strongly on the shielding length assumed, which in our models sets the attenuation of the incident UV radiation field. At the resolution of these simulations, commonly used choices for the shielding length, such as the Jeans length, result in CO abundances that are too high at a given H$_2$ abundance. We find that a model with a distribution of shielding lengths, which has a median shielding length of $\sim 3$ pc in cold gas ($T < 300$ K) for both CO and H$_{2}$, is able to reproduce both the observed CO(1-0) luminosity and inferred CO-to-H$_{2}$ conversion factor at a given star formation rate compared with observations. We suggest that this short shielding length can be thought of as a subgrid model which controls the amount of radiation that penetrates giant molecular clouds., Accepted to MNRAS. 16 pages, 10 figures

The surface processes on interstellar dust grains have an important role in the chemical evolution in molecular clouds. Hydrogenation reactions on ice surfaces have been extensively investigated and are known to proceed at low temperatures mostly below 20 K. In contrast, information about the chemical processes of molecules within an ice mantle is lacking. In this work, we investigated diffusive hydrogenation reactions of carbon monoxide (CO) embedded in amorphous solid water (ASW) as a model case and discovered that the hydrogenation of CO efficiently proceeds to yield H2CO and CH3OH even above 20 K when CO is buried beneath ASW. The experimental results suggest that hydrogen atoms diffuse through the cracks of ASW and have a sufficient residence time to react with embedded CO. The hydrogenation reactions occurred even at temperatures up to ~70 K. Cracks collapse at elevated temperatures but the occurrence of hydrogenation reactions means that the cracks would not completely disappear and remain large enough for penetration by hydrogen atoms. Considering the hydrogen-atom fluence in the laboratory and molecular clouds, we suggest that the penetration of hydrogen and its reactions within the ice mantle occur in astrophysical environments. Unified Astronomy

During the past decade, the dynamical importance of magnetic fields in molecular clouds has been increasingly recognized, as observational evidence has accumulated. However, how a magnetic field affects star formation is still unclear. Typical star formation models still treat a magnetic fields as an isotropic pressure, ignoring the fundamental property of dynamically important magnetic fields: their direction. This study builds on our previous work, which demonstrated how the mean magnetic field orientation relative to the global cloud elongation can affect cloud fragmentation. After the linear mass distribution reported earlier, we show here that the mass cumulative function (MCF) of a cloud is also regulated by the field orientation. A cloud elongated closer to the field direction tends to have a shallower MCF: in other words, a higher portion of the gas is at high density. The evidence is consistent with our understanding of the bimodal star formation efficiency discovered earlier, which is also correlated with the field orientation.

Propagation of fast-mode magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) compression waves is traced in the Galactic Centre. MHD waves produced by the active Galactic nucleus (Sgr A) focus on the molecular clouds such as Sgr B in the central molecular zone, which will trigger star formation, or possibly starburst. MHD waves newly excited by the starburst propagate backward, and focus on the nucleus (Sgr A), where implosive waves compress the nuclear gas to promote fueling the nucleus and may trigger nucleus activity. Echoing focusing of MHD waves between Sgr A (active galactic nucleus: AGN) and Sgr B (starburst) trigger each other at high efficiency by minimal energy requirement. It also solves the problem of angular momentum for AGN fueling, as the focusing waves do not require global gas flow., Accepted for MNRAS, 13 pages, 15 figures

The star formation in molecular clouds is inefficient. The ionizing extreme-ultraviolet radiation (hν ≥ 13.6 eV) from young clusters has been considered as a primary feedback effect to limit the star formation efficiency (SFE). Here, we focus on the effects of stellar far-ultraviolet (FUV) radiation (6 eV ≤ hν ≤ 13.6 eV) during the cloud disruption stage. The FUV radiation may further reduce the SFE via photoelectric heating, and it also affects the chemical states of the gas that is not converted to stars (‘cloud remnants’) via photodissociation of molecules. We have developed a one-dimensional semi-analytical model that follows the evolution of both the thermal and chemical structure of a photodissociation region (PDR) during the dynamical expansion of an H ii region. We investigate how the FUV feedback limits the SFE, supposing that the star formation is quenched in the PDR where the temperature is above a threshold value (e.g. 100 K). Our model predicts that the FUV feedback contributes to reduce the SFEs for massive (Mcl ≳ 105 M⊙) clouds with low surface densities ($\Sigma _{\rm cl}\lesssim 100~{\rm M}_\odot \, {\rm pc}^{-2}$). Moreover, we show that a large part of the H2 molecular gas contained in the cloud remnants should be ‘CO-dark’ under the FUV feedback for a wide range of cloud properties. Therefore, the dispersed molecular clouds are potential factories of CO-dark gas, which returns into the cycle of the interstellar medium.

Molecular line observations using a variety of tracers are often used to investigate the kinematic structure of molecular clouds. However, measurements of cloud velocity dispersions with different lines, even in the same region, often yield inconsistent results. The reasons for this disagreement are not entirely clear since molecular line observations are subject to a number of biases. In this paper, we untangle and investigate various factors that drive linewidth measurement biases by constructing synthetic position-position-velocity cubes for a variety of tracers from a suite of self-gravitating magnetohydrodynamic simulations of molecular clouds. We compare linewidths derived from synthetic observations of these data cubes to the true values in the simulations. We find that differences in linewidth as measured by different tracers are driven by a combination of density-dependent excitation, whereby tracers that are sensitive to higher densities sample smaller regions with smaller velocity dispersions, opacity broadening, especially for highly optically thick tracers such as CO, and finite resolution and sensitivity, which suppress the wings of emission lines. We find that, at fixed signal to noise ratio, three commonly-used tracers, the J=4->3 line of CO, the J=1->0 line of C^{18}O and the (1,1) inversion transition of NH_3, generally offer the best compromise between these competing biases, and produce estimates of the velocity dispersion that reflect the true kinematics of a molecular cloud to an accuracy of about 10% regardless of the cloud magnetic field strengths, evolutionary state, or orientations of the line of sight relative to the magnetic field., 18 pages, 16 figures

Direct imaging in the infrared at the diffraction limit of large telescopes is a unique probe of the properties of young planetary systems. We survey 55 single class I and class II stars in Taurus in the L' filter using natural and laser guide star adaptive optics and the near-infrared camera (NIRC2) of the Keck II telescope, in order to search for planetary mass companions. We use both reference star differential imaging and kernel phase techniques, achieving typical 5-sigma contrasts of ~6 magnitudes at separations of 0.2" and ~8 magnitudes beyond 0.5". Although we do not detect any new faint companions, we constrain the frequency of wide separation massive planets, such as HR 8799 analogues. We find that, assuming hot-start models and a planet distribution with power-law mass and semi-major axis indices of -0.5 and -1, respectively, less than 20% of our target stars host planets with masses >2 MJ at separations >10 AU., 16 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Beyond the snow line of protoplanetary discs and inside the dense core of molecular clouds, the temperature of gas is low enough for water vapour to condense into amorphous ices on the surface of preexisting refractory dust particles. Recent numerical simulations and laboratory experiments suggest that condensation of the vapour promotes dust coagulation in such a cold region. However, in the numerical simulations, cohesion of refractory materials is often underestimated, while in the laboratory experiments, water vapour collides with surfaces at more frequent intervals compared to the real conditions. Therefore, to re-examine the role of water ice in dust coagulation, we carry out systematic investigation of available data on coagulation of water ice particles by making full use of appropriate theories in contact mechanics and tribology. We find that the majority of experimental data are reasonably well explained by lubrication theories, owing to the presence of a quasi-liquid layer (QLL). Only exceptions are the results of dynamic collisions between particles at low temperatures, which are, instead, consistent with the JKR theory, because QLLs are too thin to dissipate their kinetic energies. By considering the vacuum conditions in protoplanetary discs and molecular clouds, the formation of amorphous water ice on the surface of refractory particles does not necessarily aid their collisional growth as currently expected. While crystallisation of water ice around but outside the snow line eases coagulation of ice-coated particles, sublimation of water ice inside the snow line is deemed to facilitate coagulation of bare refractory particles., Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures, published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Observations indicate that molecular clouds are strongly magnetized, and that magnetic fields influence the formation of stars. A key observation supporting the conclusion that molecular clouds are significantly magnetized is that the orientation of their internal structure is closely related to that of the magnetic field. At low column densities the structure aligns parallel with the field, whereas at higher column densities, the gas structure is typically oriented perpendicular to magnetic fields, with a transition at visual extinctions $A_V\gtrsim{}3~\rm{}mag$. Here we use far-infrared polarimetric observations from the HAWC+ polarimeter on SOFIA to report the discovery of a further transition in relative orientation, i.e., a return to parallel alignment at $A_V\gtrsim{}21~\rm{}mag$ in parts of the Serpens South cloud. This transition appears to be caused by gas flow and indicates that magnetic supercriticality sets in near $A_V\gtrsim{}21~\rm{}mag$, allowing gravitational collapse and star cluster formation to occur even in the presence of relatively strong magnetic fields., Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, Published in Nature Astronomy (August 2020). This is the authors' version before final edits. Link to the NA publication: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1172-6

Molecular clouds fragment to form dense cores, which are the first stage of star formation. Such objects are cold, with temperature of ~10 K and density of $${{10}^{4}}{-} {{10}^{7}}$$ cm–3, with predominance of thermal motions and high deuterium fraction. These objects give us information about the initial conditions of star formation and thus they are very important to understand this process. High abundance of deuterated species indicates that a dense core is close to the onset of star formation. In this work, we study deuterium fractionation, which occurs due to chemical reactions that take place under cold core conditions. To measure deuterium fraction, we use nitrogen-bearing species, because they stay longer in the gas phase at low temperatures. We choose the L1688 low-mass star-forming region as one of the closest ones, containing a large number of cold dense cores. We use spectral maps of two lines, N2H+(1–0) and N2D+(1–0), towards one of the dense cores in L1688, Oph-H-MM1, observed with the IRAM 30 m telescope. We measure column densities of N2D+ and N2H+ and deuterium fraction as the ratio of column densities. The map shows an increase in deuterium fraction towards the core center, which is consistent with theoretical predictions.