HOW MANY INFRARED DARK CLOUDS CAN FORM MASSIVE STARS AND CLUSTERS?

By Jens Kauffmann, T. Pillai. 2010

153 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present a new assessment of the ability of Infrared Dark Clouds (IRDCs) to form massive stars and clusters. This is done by comparison with an empirical mass–size threshold for massive star formation (MSF). We establish m(r)>870 M☉(r/pc)1.33 as a novel approximate MSF limit, based on clouds with and without MSF. Many IRDCs, if not most, fall short of this threshold. Without significant evolution, such clouds are unlikely MSF candidates. This provides a first quantitative assessment of the small number of IRDCs evolving toward MSF. IRDCs below this limit might still form stars and clusters of up to intermediate mass, though (like, e.g., the Ophiuchus and Perseus Molecular Clouds). Nevertheless, a major fraction of the mass contained in IRDCs might reside in few 102 clouds sustaining MSF.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/477e4c4f101efde7692e15c8bb909722ad3bb8ee

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

Citations in the corpus

The ATLASGAL survey: a catalog of dust condensations in the Galactic plane (2013, background): “…a long time to be the initial stages for high-mass star-formation, some of them have been shown to be simply holes in the interstellar medium (Wilcock et al. 2012), and in fact only a small fraction of them is likely to sustain massive star-formation (Peretto et al. 2010; Kauffmann & Pillai 2010).”
Variations in the Galactic star formation rate and density thresholds for star formation (2012, methodology): “We can estimate the effect of this by calculating the average density of the gas inferred from the empirical mass-size relation (Kauffmann & Pillai 2010), n(H2) = 3.13 × 103(r/pc)−1.67 cm−3.”
Characterizing precursors to stellar clusters with Herschel (2011, result): “While there exist many small IRDCs (e.g., Peretto & Fuller 2010; Kauffmann & Pillai 2010), the most massive ones (M ∼ 103−4 M⊙, nH > 10 5 cm−3, T < 25 K, Rathborne et al. 2006; Egan et al. 1998; Carey et al. 1998) are consistent with expectations for a proto-cluster.”
Star Formation in the Milky Way and Nearby Galaxies (2012, background): “One analysis found that clouds forming stars with masses over 10 M⊙ satisfied the following relation: m(r) ≥ 870M⊙(r/pc) 1.33 (Kauffmann et al. 2010; Kauffmann & Pillai 2010), where m(r) is the enclosed mass as a function of radius.”
ATLASGAL — towards a complete sample of massive star forming clumps ⋆ (2014, background): “The beige shaded region shows the part of the parameter space found to be devoid of massive star formation that satisfies the relationship m(r) ≤ 580 M (Reff/pc)1.33 (cf. Kauffmann & Pillai 2010).”
Global collapse of molecular clouds as a formation mechanism for the most massive stars (2013, background): “Massive IRDCs, such as SDC335, are therefore ideal places to study the earliest stages of highmass star formation (e.g. Kauffmann & Pillai 2010).”
LOW VIRIAL PARAMETERS IN MOLECULAR CLOUDS: IMPLICATIONS FOR HIGH-MASS STAR FORMATION AND MAGNETIC FIELDS (2013, methodology): “This is a consequence of the high mass of HMSF clouds, which are observed to exceed an approximate size–dependent threshold, M(R) > MHMSF(R) where MHMSF(R) = 870M⊙ ( κ(ν) κOH(ν)/1.5 )−1 ( R pc )1.33 (14) (Kauffmann & Pillai 2010; see yellow shading in Fig.”