The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey. VII. Characterizing the Properties of Massive Star-Forming Regions

Abstract

We present the results of a GBT survey of NH3(1,1), (2,2), (3,3) lines towards 631 Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) sources at a range of Galactic longitudes in the inner Galaxy. We have detected the NH3(1,1) line towards 72% of our targets (456), demonstrating that the high column density features identified in the BGPS and other continuum surveys accurately predict the presence of dense gas. We have determined kinematic distances and resolved the distance ambiguity for all BGPS sources detected in NH3. The BGPS sources trace the locations of the Scutum and Sagittarius spiral arms, with the number of sources peaking between Galactocentric radii of 4-5 kpc. We measure the physical properties of each source and find that depending on the distance, BGPS sources are primarily clumps, with some cores and clouds. We have examined the physical properties as a function of Galactocentric distance, and find a mean gas kinetic temperature of 15.6 K, and that the NH3 column density and abundance decrease by nearly an order of magnitude between Galactocentric radii of 3 - 11 kpc. Comparing sources at similar distances demonstrates that the physical properties are indistinguishable, which suggests a similarity in clump structure across the Galactic disk. We have also compared the BGPS sources to criteria for efficient star formation presented independently by Heiderman et al. and Lada et al., and massive star formation presented by Kauffmann et al. 48% of our sample should be forming stars (including massive stars) with high efficiency, and 87% contain subregions that should be efficiently forming stars. Indeed, we find that 67% of the sample exhibit signs of star formation activity based on an association with a mid-IR source.

30 pages, 25 figures, 9 tables. Accepted for publication in ApJ. Full tables will be available via ApJ

References in corpus (14)

• Trigonometric Parallaxes of Massive Star Forming Regions: VI. Galactic Structure, Fundamental Parameters and Non-Circular Motions
• Cold Dark Clouds: The Initial Conditions for Star Formation
• The Boston University-Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory Galactic Ring Survey
• A Catalog of Extended Green Objects (EGOs) in the GLIMPSE Survey: A new sample of massive young stellar object outflow candidates
• The VLA Galactic Plane Survey
• A Minimum Column Density of 1 g cm^-2 for Massive Star Formation
• The earliest phases of high-mass star formation: a 3 square degree millimeter continuum mapping of Cygnus X
• Kinematic Distances to Molecular Clouds identified in the Galactic Ring Survey
• Intrinsically Red Sources observed by Spitzer in the Galactic Mid-Plane
• An Ammonia Spectral Atlas of Dense Cores in Perseus
• On the internal structure of starless cores. II. A molecular survey of L1498 and L1517B
• Resolution of the Distance Ambiguity for Galactic HII Regions
• Molecular clouds and clumps in the Boston University-Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory Galactic Ring Survey
• SMA observations of Infrared Dark Clouds: A tale of two cores

Cited by in corpus (99)

• Star Formation in the Milky Way and Nearby Galaxies
• The Critical Density and the Effective Excitation Density of Commonly Observed Molecular Dense Gas Tracers
• The WISE Catalog of Galactic HII Regions
• ATLASGAL --- properties of a complete sample of Galactic clumps
• Variations in the Galactic star formation rate and density thresholds for star formation
• ATLASGAL - Compact source catalogue: 330 < l < 21 degrees
• ATLASGAL --- towards a complete sample of massive star forming clumps
• The ATLASGAL survey: a catalog of dust condensations in the Galactic plane
• Ammonia from cold high-mass clumps discovered in the inner Galactic disk by the ATLASGAL survey
• The RMS Survey: Galactic distribution of massive star formation
• ATLASGAL --- Environments of 6.7\,GHz methanol masers
• ATLASGAL --- properties of compact HII regions and their natal clumps
• The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey IX: Data Release 2 and Outer Galaxy Extension
• SEDIGISM: Structure, excitation, and dynamics of the inner Galactic interstellar medium
• Far-Infrared Dust Temperatures and Column Densities of the MALT90 Molecular Clump Sample
• Filamentary Fragmentation and Accretion in High-Mass Star-Forming Molecular Clouds
• ATLASGAL -- A Galaxy-wide sample of dense filamentary structures
• ATLASGAL - Kinematic distances and the dense gas mass distribution of the inner Galaxy
• The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey. XIV. Physical Properties of Massive Starless and Star Forming Clumps
• Star Formation Relations in the Milky Way
• ATLASGAL -- Evolutionary trends in high-mass star formation
• The Dense Gas Mass Fraction of Molecular Clouds in the Milky Way
• A Census of Large-Scale ($\ge$ 10 pc), Velocity-Coherent, Dense Filaments in the Northern Galactic Plane: Automated Identification Using Minimum Spanning Tree
• Star formation towards the Scutum tangent region and the effects of Galactic environment
• The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey. X. A Complete Spectroscopic Catalog of Dense Molecular Gas Observed toward 1.1 mm Dust Continuum Sources with 7.5 <= l <= 194 degrees
• The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey. VIII. A Mid-Infrared Kinematic Distance Discrimination Method
• Galactic structure based on the ATLASGAL 870mum survey
• A Water Maser and Ammonia Survey of GLIMPSE Extended Green Objects (EGOs)
• A multi-wavelength study of star formation activity in the S235 complex
• Characterization of Infrared Dark Clouds -- NH${}_3$ Observations of an Absorption-contrast Selected IRDC Sample
• The Onset of Massive Star Formation: The Evolution of Temperature and Density Structure in an Infrared Dark Cloud
• The ATLASGAL survey: The sample of young massive cluster progenitors
• The molecular complex associated with the Galactic HII region Sh2-90: a possible site of triggered star formation
• The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey. XII. Distance Catalog Expansion Using Kinematic Isolation of Dense Molecular Cloud Structures With 13CO(1-0)
• ATLASGAL-selected massive clumps in the inner Galaxy: VI. Kinetic temperature and spatial density measured with formaldehyde
• Carbon in different phases ([CII], [CI], and CO) in infrared dark clouds: Cloud formation signatures and carbon gas fractions
• Star formation scales and efficiency in Galactic spiral arms
• Star cluster formation with stellar feedback and large-scale inflow
• A New 95 GHz Methanol Maser Catalog: I. Data
• Rapid Circumstellar Disk Evolution and an Accelerating Star Formation Rate in the Infrared Dark Cloud M17 SWex
• An Analysis of the Environments of FU Orionis Objects with Herschel
• H2O Southern Galactic Plane Survey (HOPS): Paper III - Properties of Dense Molecular Gas across the Inner Milky Way
• Star Formation Occurs in Dense Gas, but What Does "Dense" Mean?
• High-mass Starless Clumps in the inner Galactic Plane: the Sample and Dust Properties
• Kinetic temperature of massive star forming molecular clumps measured with formaldehyde
• ALMA-IRDC: Dense gas mass distribution from cloud to core scales
• New insights in the HII region G18.88-0.49: hub-filament system and accreting filaments
• KFPA Examinations of Young STellar Object Natal Environments (KEYSTONE): Hierarchical Ammonia Structures in Galactic Giant Molecular Clouds
• SEDIGISM-ATLASGAL: Dense Gas Fraction and Star Formation Efficiency Across the Galactic Disk
• A 95 GHz Class I Methanol Maser Survey Toward A Sample of GLIMPSE Point Sources Associated with BGPS Clumps
• Testing Triggered Star Formation in Six H II Regions
• ATLASGAL - Ammonia observations towards the southern Galactic Plane
• Thermal balance and comparison of gas and dust properties of dense clumps in the Hi-GAL survey
• The Comparison of Physical Properties Derived from Gas and Dust in a Massive Star-Forming Region
• Star-forming regions of the Aquila rift cloud complex. I. NH3 tracers of dense molecular cores
• The Milky Way Project and ATLASGAL: The distribution and physical properties of cold clumps near infrared bubbles
• Studying Relation Between Star Formation and Molecular Clumps on Subparsec Scales in 30 Doradus
• Dense Gas in a Giant Molecular Filament
• Galactic interstellar sulfur isotopes: A radial ${}^{32}$S$/$${}^{34}$S gradient?
• ATLASGAL -- physical parameters of dust clumps associated with 6.7 GHz methanol masers
• Ammonia and CO Outflow around 6.7 GHz Methanol Masers
• Trigonometric Parallaxes of Four Star-forming Regions in the Distant Inner Galaxy
• The Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey. XIII. Physical Properties and Mass Functions of Dense Molecular Cloud Structures
• The Milky Way Project: What are Yellowballs?
• Importance of source structure on complex organics emission III. Effect of disks around massive protostars
• High-resolution ammonia mapping of the very young protostellar core Chamaeleon-MMS1
• Physical characteristics of G331.5-0.1: The luminous central region of a Giant Molecular Cloud
• On the nature of the enigmatic object IRAS 19312+1950: A rare phase of massive star formation?
• Kinematic and Thermal Structure at the onset of high-mass star formation
• The physical environment around IRAS 17599-2148: infrared dark cloud and bipolar nebula
• Tracers of Dense Gas in the Outer Galaxy
• Fragmentation of the High-mass "Starless'' Core G10.21-0.31: a Coherent Evolutionary Picture for Star Formation
• The Star Formation Relation for Regions in the Galactic Plane: The Effect of Spatial Resolution
• Will ALMA Reveal the True Core Mass Function of Protoclusters?
• Star-forming regions of the Aquila rift cloud complex. II. Turbulence in molecular cores probed by NH3 emission
• Magnetic fields and Star Formation around HII regions: The S235 complex
• Ammonia observations towards the Aquila Rift cloud complex
• Wide Field CO Mapping in the Region of IRAS 19312+1950
• The molecular clump towards the eastern border of SNR G18.8+0.3
• Molecules in the peculiar age-defying source IRAS 19312+1950
• The RMS Survey: Ammonia mapping of the environment of young massive stellar objects II
• Kinetic temperature of massive star-forming molecular clumps measured with formaldehyde V. The massive filament DR21
• Molecular line mapping of the giant molecular cloud associated with RCW 106 - IV. Ammonia towards dust emission
• Observations of multiple NH${}_3$ transitions in W33
• Water Masers in the Andromeda Galaxy: I. A Survey for Water Masers, Ammonia, and Hydrogen Recombination Lines
• Characteristic scale of star formation. I. Clump formation efficiency on local scales
• Early Science with the Large Millimetre Telescope: Fragmentation of molecular clumps in the Galaxy
• A statistical study towards the high-mass BGPS clumps with the MALT90 survey
• A Systematic Observational Study on Galactic Interstellar Ratio 18O/17O. II. C18O and C17O J=2-1 Data Analysis
• A rotating helical filament in the L1251 dark cloud
• The pros and cons of the inversion method approach to derive 3D dust emission properties of the ISM: the Hi-GAL field centred on (l,b)=(30${}^{\circ }$,0${}^{\circ }$)
• The Effelsberg survey of FU Orionis and EX Lupi objects I. -- Host environments of FUors/EXors traced by NH${}_3$
• Colliding interstellar bubbles in the direction of l=54°
• The Correlation of Dust and Gas Emission in Star-Forming Environments
• The Connection Between Different Tracers Of The Diffuse Interstellar Medium: Kinematics
• Northern Galactic Molecular Cloud Clumps in Hi-GAL: Dense Gas Map and Environmental Trends
• Northern Galactic Molecular Cloud Clumps in Hi-GAL: Clump and Star Formation within Clouds
• A Galactic Molecular Cloud Clump Catalog from Hi-GAL Data: Method and Initial Results Comparison to BGPS
• A low-mass hub-filament with double centre revealed in NGC2071-North