The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2024)

On the Scarcity of Dense Cores (n > 105 cm−3) in High-latitude Planck Galactic Cold Clumps

  • Fengwei Xu,
  • Ke Wang,
  • Tie Liu,
  • David Eden,
  • Xunchuan Liu,
  • Mika Juvela,
  • Jinhua He,
  • Doug Johnstone,
  • Paul Goldsmith,
  • Guido Garay,
  • Yuefang Wu,
  • Archana Soam,
  • Alessio Traficante,
  • Isabelle Ristorcelli,
  • Edith Falgarone,
  • Huei-Ru Vivien Chen,
  • Naomi Hirano,
  • Yasuo Doi,
  • Woojin Kwon,
  • Glenn J. White,
  • Anthony Whitworth,
  • Patricio Sanhueza,
  • Mark G. Rawlings,
  • Dana Alina,
  • Zhiyuan Ren,
  • Chang Won Lee,
  • Ken’ichi Tatematsu,
  • Chuan-Peng Zhang,
  • Jianjun Zhou,
  • Shih-Ping Lai,
  • Derek Ward-Thompson,
  • Sheng-Yuan Liu,
  • Qilao Gu,
  • Eswaraiah Chakali,
  • Lei Zhu,
  • Diego Mardones,
  • L. Viktor Tóth

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ad21e6
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 963, no. 1
p. L9

Abstract

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High-latitude (∣ b ∣ > 30°) molecular clouds have virial parameters that exceed 1, but whether these clouds can form stars has not been studied systematically. Using JCMT SCUBA-2 archival data, we surveyed 70 fields that target high-latitude Planck Galactic cold clumps (HLPCs) to find dense cores with density of 10 ^5 –10 ^6 cm ^−3 and size of 1 × 10 ^21 cm ^−2 ). At an average rms of 15 mJy beam ^−1 , we detected Galactic dense cores in only one field, G6.04+36.77 (L183) while also identifying 12 extragalactic objects and two young stellar objects. Compared to the low-latitude clumps, dense cores are scarce in HLPCs. With synthetic observations, the densities of cores are constrained to be n _c ≲ 10 ^5 cm ^−3 should they exist in HLPCs. Low-latitude clumps, Taurus clumps, and HLPCs form a sequence where a higher virial parameter corresponds to a lower dense-core detection rate. If HLPCs were affected by the Local Bubble, the scarcity should favor turbulence-inhibited rather than supernova-driven star formation. Studies of the formation mechanism of the L183 molecular cloud are warranted.

Keywords