A SCUBA survey of Orion -the low-mass end of the core mass function

By D. Nutter, D. Ward-Thompson. 2006

183 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We have re-analysed all of the Submillimetre Common User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) archive data of the Orion star-forming regions. We have put together all of the data taken at different times by different groups. Consequently, we have constructed the deepest submillimetre maps of these regions ever made. There are four regions that have been mapped: Orion A North and South, and Orion B North and South. We find that two of the regions, Orion A North and Orion B North, have deeper sensitivity and completeness limits, and contain a larger number of sources, so we concentrate on these two. We compare the data with archive data from the Spitzer Space Telescope to determine whether or not a core detected in the submillimetre is pre-stellar in nature. We extract all of the pre-stellar cores from the data and make a histogram of the core masses. This can be compared to the stellar initial mass function (IMF). We find the high-mass core mass function (CMF) follows a roughly Salpeter-like slope, just like the IMF, as seen in previous work. Our deeper maps allow us to see that the CMF turns over at, ?1.3 M? about a factor of 4 higher than our completeness limit. This turnover has never previously been observed, and is only visible here due to our much deeper maps. It mimics the turnover seen in the stellar IMF at ?0.1 M?. The low-mass side of the CMF is a power law with an exponent of, 0.35

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Education, Instrumentation

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Citations in the corpus

Fragmentation and mass segregation in the massive dense cores of Cygnus X (2009, background): “Motte et al. (1998), followed by a large number of other works (e.g. Testi & Sargent 1998; Johnstone et al. 2000; Nutter & Ward-Thompson 2007), could trace that the mass distribution of pre-stellar cores and Class 0 YSOs have the same shape than the IMF.”
The Aquila prestellar core population revealed by Herschel (2010, background): “…and Orion B have uncovered ’complete’ (but small) samples of prestellar cores whose associated core mass functions (CMF) resemble the stellar IMF (e.g., Motte et al. 1998; Johnstone et al. 2000; Enoch et al. 2006; Nutter & Ward-Thompson 2007; – see also Alves et al. 2007 and André et al. 2007).”
The Mass Distribution and Lifetime of Prestellar Cores in Perseus, Serpens, and Ophiuchus (2008, background): “In Orion, Nutter & Ward-Thompson (2007) find a turnover in the CMD of starless SCUBA 850µm cores at ∼ 1.3M⊙.”
Physical Processes in the Interstellar Medium (2014, background): “Currently all observational data (e.g. Motte et al., 1998; Testi & Sargent, 1998; Johnstone et al., 2000, 2001, 2006; Nutter & Ward-Thompson, 2007; Alves et al., 2007; Di Francesco et al., 2007; Ward-Thompson et al., 2007; Lada et al., 2008; Könyves et al., 2010) reveal a striking similarity to the…”
LOW VIRIAL PARAMETERS IN MOLECULAR CLOUDS: IMPLICATIONS FOR HIGH-MASS STAR FORMATION AND MAGNETIC FIELDS (2013, methodology): “For the quiescent cores in Orion, we have calculated α combining gas kinematics and temperatures from the VLA NH3 (1,1) data of Li et al. (2013) with mass estimates from SCUBA 850 µm observations by Nutter & Ward-Thompson (2007).”
ANALYTICAL THEORY FOR THE INITIAL MASS FUNCTION. II. PROPERTIES OF THE FLOW (2009, background): “…core mass function (CMF) has been found to have a shape very similar to the IMF (Motte et al. 1998, Testi & Sargent 1998, Johnstone et al. 2000, Alvés et al. 2007, Nutter & Ward-Thompson 2007, Simpson et al. 2008, Enoch et al. 2008), although shifted towards larger masses by a factor of about 2-3.”
Theory of Star Formation (2007, background): “…covering both cluster regions and larger areas in star-forming systems (e.g. Motte, Andre, & Neri 1998; Testi & Sargent 1998; Johnstone et al. 2000, 2001; Motte et al. 2001; Beuther & Schilke 2004; Reid & Wilson 2005, 2006a; Stanke et al. 2006; Enoch et al. 2006; Nutter & Ward-Thompson 2007).”