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The 3D structure of Star Formation Regions in the era of Gaia
Thavisha Dharmawardena MPIA, Heidelberg, DE | |
| The detailed 3D distributions of dust density and extinction in the Milky Way have long been sought after. However, such 3D reconstruction from sparse data is non-trivial, but is essential to understanding the properties of star-formation, large-scale dynamics and structure of our Galaxy. In this work I will introduce our new fast and scalable algorithm for 3D dust modeling. Using advanced ML methods such as sparse Gaussian Processes and Variational Inference, our algorithm maps Star Formation Regions (SFRs) with millions of input sources in parsec scales within an hour on a single GPU. Our approach allows us to identify large-scale structures in star-formation regions while simultaneously peering into individual molecular clouds, providing insights into multi-scale processes such as fragmentation in molecular clouds. In our recent work, we model the 3D dust density distribution of 15 SFRs, exploiting distances and extinctions derived from Gaia DR2 and IR data. From these maps, we extract 3D boundaries, volumes, precise dust masses and filling factors to study fragmentation within our regions. We recover a wider range of substructures such as new interconnecting and free standing filaments and star-formation feedback and supernovae cavities. In particular we explore how individual substructures contribute to the overall dust density PDFs of these SFRs and therefore affect star-formation. Our sample spans a wide range of environments and masses, which we use to explore the dependence of the dust density PDF on initial conditions. Comprehensively comparing to Planck data, we demonstrate for the first time that the known relationships between density and dust processing, where high-extinction lines-of-sight have the most processed grains, hold up in resolved observations and continue on smaller scales than previously suggested. Finally, I will showcase what we can expect with our methods when combined with Gaia DR3 and EDR3 extinctions and distances derived spectrophotometrically, demonstrating these datasets’ potential for 3D dust mapping in unprecedented detail. | |
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| Caption: (left): 3D dust density distribution of Cygnus X sampled at the indicated distances; (right): Ratio of total extinction predicted by our model to Planck optical depth normalised by the median of the ratio for Cygnus X region. Predicted extinction contours are overlaid. | |
| Collaborators: C. Bailer-Jones, MPIA, DE M. Fouesneau, MPIA, DE D. Foreman-Mackey, CCA, US P. Coronica, MPCDF, DE T. Colnaghi, MPCDF, DE |
Key publication
Suggested Session: Molecular Clouds |