 |
|
| EPoS Contribution |
|
Collapsing Cores in Filaments and Massive Star Forming Regions
RowanJ. Smith ZAH/ITA, Heidelberg, Germany | |
| Observations are revealing the ubiquity of filamentary structures in molecular clouds. Collapsing cores form along the filaments and massive stars are formed where multiple filaments converge. In this contribution I examine the dynamics of such systems by carrying out radiative transfer modelling to obtain molecular line profiles from simulations and then critically comparing the results to observations. Filaments are found to typically exhibit low linewidths and have mild velocity gradients of a few km/s across their length. In high density clustered regions, internal filament velocities can hide collapse signatures from their embedded collapsing cores in up to 50% of cases, and the line profiles are highly variable with viewing angle. In some cases red asymmetric line profiles can even be seen from collapsing cores. In simulations of massive star forming regions there are large scale convergence motions centred on the massive protostars. Such motions result from massive stars forming at the bottom of the potential-well of their parent proto-cluster. The resulting line profiles are less variable with viewing angle than their low mass analogues. Furthermore, a characteristic "saw-tooth" line profile is frequently seen from massive star forming regions instead of the predicted double peaked blue asymmetric profile. | |
| Collaborators: Rahul Shetty, Ralf Klessen, University Heidelberg, Germany Amelia Stutz, MPIA Heidelberg, Germany Ian Bonnell, St-Andrews University, UK |
Key publication
|