Cloud Structure and the Origins of the Stellar Initial Mass Function in ρ Ophiuchus

Details Cloud Structure and the Origins of the Stellar Initial Mass Function in ρ Ophiuchus Cloud Structure and the Origins of the Stellar Initial Mass Function in ρ Ophiuchus

Dec 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007aas...211.8912n&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #211, #89.12; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 39, p.880

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We explore the relationship between dense molecular cores and young, pre-main sequence stars in rho-Ophiuchus, an active star-forming region. Our analyses synthesize multi-wavelength data, including dust extinction maps, dust emission at 1.2mm, mid-infrared images, and molecular line emission from several species.
Following the investigation of several core identification algorithms - including a new technique based on Bayesian statistics - we select a final sample of dense cores from a hybrid of techniques applied to the 1.2mm dust emission. The spatial distribution of these cores appears scale free over two orders of magnitude, following the spatial distribution of young stars over a wide dynamic range. However, measured velocity dispersions of the dense gas in cores imply that a vast majority are stable against gravitational collapse. The average column density of cores systematically decreases with core size suggesting that some of the larger cores may be transient or fragment into multiple star systems. Several cores harbor multiple embedded sources, while other cores previously thought to be "starless" are found to contain newly identified sources.
In light of these results, we find it unlikely that cores identified through dust emission or extinction have a one-to-one mapping with the subsequent generation of stars arising from them. Furthermore, simple modeling suggests that the similarity between the observed core mass function and the stellar IMF does not necessitate a one-to-one mapping between members of the two distributions. Understanding the similarities between ensembles of dense cores and the stellar initial mass function will require in depth studies that consider the distribution of dust, molecular line emission, and deep near and mid-infrared imaging from nearby regions of active star formation.
This work received funding from the NSF as part of the REU program at the Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii.

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