The initial conditions of high-mass star formation: radiative transfer models of IRDCs seen in the Herschel Hi-GAL survey

Abstract

The densest infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) may represent the earliest observable stage of high-mass star formation. These clouds are very cold, hence they emit mainly at far-infrared and sub-mm wavelengths. For the first time, Herschel has provided multi-wavelength, spatially resolved observations of cores within IRDCs, which, when combined with radiative transfer modelling, can constrain their properties, such as mass, density profile and dust temperature. We use a 3D, multi-wavelength Monte Carlo radiative transfer code to model in detail the emission from six cores in three typical IRDCs seen in the Hi-GAL survey (G030.50+00.95, G031.03+00.26 and G031.03+00.76), and thereby to determine the properties of these cores and compare them with their low-mass equivalents. We found masses ranging from 90 to 290 solar masses with temperatures from 8 to 11K at the centre of each core and 18 to 28K at the surface. The maximum luminosity of an embedded star within each core was calculated, and we rule out the possibility of significant high mass star formation having yet occurred in three of our cores.

arXiv comment10 pages, 5 figures, accepted in A&A

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• The Onset of Massive Star Formation: The Evolution of Temperature and Density Structure in an Infrared Dark Cloud
• Massive 70 micron quiet clumps I: evidence of embedded low/intermediate-mass star formation activity
• Evolution of young protoclusters embedded in dense massive clumps. A new grid of population synthesis SED models and a new set of L/M evolutionary tracks
• Isolated starless cores in IRDCs in the Hi-GAL survey
• ALMA-IMF XVI: Mass-averaged temperature of cores and protostellar luminosities in the ALMA-IMF protoclusters
• The Rosetta Stone Project. II. The correlation between star formation efficiency and L/M indicator for the evolutionary stages of star-forming clumps in post-processed radiative magnetohydrodynamics simulations
• Narrow-line HI and cold structures in the ISM