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Herschel Gould Belt Survey Observations of Dense Cores in the Cepheus Flare Clouds
- Source :
- The Astrophysical Journal, The Astrophysical Journal, American Astronomical Society, 2020, 904 (2), pp.172. ⟨10.3847/1538-4357/abc016⟩
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- arXiv, 2020.
-
Abstract
- We present Herschel SPIRE and PACS maps of the Cepheus Flare clouds L1157, L1172, L1228, L1241, and L1251, observed by the Herschel Gould Belt Survey (HGBS) of nearby star-forming molecular clouds. Through modified blackbody fits to the SPIRE and PACS data, we determine typical cloud column densities of 0.5-1.0 $\times$ 10$^{21}$ cm$^{-2}$ and typical cloud temperatures of 14-15 K. Using the getsources identification algorithm, we extract 832 dense cores from the SPIRE and PACS data at 160-500 $\mu$m. From placement in a mass vs. size diagram, we consider 303 to be candidate prestellar cores, and 178 of these to be "robust" prestellar cores. From an independent extraction of sources at 70 $\mu$m, we consider 25 of the 832 dense cores to be protostellar. The distribution of background column densities coincident with candidate prestellar cores peaks at 2-4 $\times$ 10$^{21}$ cm$^{-2}$. About half of the candidate prestellar cores in Cepheus may have formed due to the widespread fragmentation expected to occur within filaments of "transcritical" line mass. The lognormal robust prestellar core mass function (CMF) drawn from all five Cepheus clouds peaks at 0.56 M$_{\odot}$ and has a width of $\sim$0.5 dex, similar to that of Aquila's CMF. Indeed, the width of Cepheus' aggregate CMF is similar to the stellar system Initial Mass Function (IMF). The similarity of CMF widths in different clouds and the system IMF suggests a common, possibly turbulent origin for seeding the fluctuations that evolve into prestellar cores and stars.<br />Comment: 36 pages, 21 figures, 2 online text tables (not yet included here), accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal
- Subjects :
- Initial mass function
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
FOS: Physical sciences
Astrophysics
01 natural sciences
0103 physical sciences
Protostar
010303 astronomy & astrophysics
ComputingMilieux_MISCELLANEOUS
Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Cosmic dust
Physics
Star formation
Molecular cloud
F510
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
Galaxy
Interstellar medium
Stars
Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]
13. Climate action
Space and Planetary Science
Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 0004637X and 15384357
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- The Astrophysical Journal, The Astrophysical Journal, American Astronomical Society, 2020, 904 (2), pp.172. ⟨10.3847/1538-4357/abc016⟩
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....75f184389cbe713dd70defe3ef4185d4
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2010.09894