The Mass-size Relation from Clouds to Cores. II. Solar Neighborhood Clouds

We measure the mass and size of cloud fragments in several molecular clouds continuously over a wide range of spatial scales (0.05 {approx}< r/pc {approx}< 3). Based on the recently developed 'dendrogram-technique', this characterizes dense cores as well as the enveloping clouds. �...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal Vol. 716; no. 1; pp. 433 - 445
Main Authors: Kauffmann, J, Pillai, T, Shetty, R, Myers, P. C, Goodman, A. A
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 10.06.2010
IOP
Subjects:
APPROXIMATIONS
Astronomy
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
CALCULATION METHODS
Clouds
DATA ANALYSIS
Earth, ocean, space
EVOLUTION
Exact sciences and technology
MASS
NEBULAE
Solar neighborhood
STAR EVOLUTION
STARS
stars: formation
Data analysis
ISM: clouds
methods: data analysis
Star formation
Solar neighborhood
ISSN:0004-637X, 1538-4357
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:We measure the mass and size of cloud fragments in several molecular clouds continuously over a wide range of spatial scales (0.05 {approx}< r/pc {approx}< 3). Based on the recently developed 'dendrogram-technique', this characterizes dense cores as well as the enveloping clouds. 'Larson's Third Law' of constant column density, m(r) {proportional_to} r {sup 2}, is not well suited to describe the derived mass-size data. Solar neighborhood clouds not forming massive stars ({approx}<10 M {sub sun}; Pipe Nebula, Taurus, Perseus, and Ophiuchus) obey m(r) {<=} 870 M {sub sun}(r/pc){sup 1.33}. In contrast to this, clouds forming massive stars (Orion A, G10.15 - 0.34, G11.11 - 0.12) do exceed the aforementioned relation. Thus, this limiting mass-size relation may approximate a threshold for the formation of massive stars. Across all clouds, cluster-forming cloud fragments are found to be-at given radius-more massive than fragments devoid of clusters. The cluster-bearing fragments are found to roughly obey a mass-size law m {proportional_to} r {sup 1.27} (where the exponent is highly uncertain in any given cloud, but is certainly smaller than 1.5).
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ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/716/1/433