Kinematics and Star Formation in the Hub–Filament System G6.55-0.1

Abstract

Hub–filament systems (HFSs) being the potential sites of formation of star clusters and high-mass stars, provide a testbed for the current theories that attempt to explain star formation globally. It is thus important to study a large number of HFSs using both intensity and velocity information to constrain these objects better observationally. Here, we present a study of the HFS associated with G6.55-0.1 using newly obtained observations of the radio continuum and the J = 2–1 transition of CO, ^13 CO, and C ^18 O. The radio continuum maps show multiple peaks that coincide with far-infrared dust continuum peaks, indicating the presence of more than one young massive star in the hub of the HFS. We used the velocity information from the C ^18 O(2–1) map to (a) show that the source G6.55-0.1 is not physically associated with the supernova remnant W28 and (b) disentangle and identify the velocity components genuinely associated with G6.55-0.1. Among the velocity-coherent structures identified in the region, we conclude that only the two filaments at 13.8 and 17.3 km s ^−1 contribute a total mass accretion rate of 3000 M _⊙ Myr ^−1 to the hub. Both the filaments also show a V-shaped structure, characteristic of gravitational collapse, in their velocity profile at the location of the hub. The estimated mass per unit length of the segments of the filaments is smaller than the critical line masses derived from virial equilibrium considerations. This suggests that the filaments are not gravitationally collapsing as a whole, although their inner parts clearly show evidence of collapse in the form of young star-forming cores. We further conclude that the observed velocity gradients are consistent with the gravitational collapse of the main source in the region as estimated from its mass and size.

Keywords

• Interstellar medium
• Star formation
• Interstellar filaments