The Dense Gas Mass Fraction of Molecular Clouds in the Milky Way

Abstract

The mass fraction of dense gas within giant molecular clouds (GMCs) of the Milky Way is investigated using 13CO data from the FCRAO Galactic Plane Surveys and the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) of 1.1 mm dust continuum emission. A sample of 860 compact dust sources are selected from the BGPS catalog and kinematically linked to 344 clouds of extended (>3') 13CO J=1-0 emission. Gas masses are tabulated for the full dust source and subregions within the dust sources with mass surface densities greater than 200 M_solar/pc^2, which are assumed to be regions of enhanced volume density. Masses of the parent GMCs are calculated assuming optically thin 13CO J=1-0 emission and LTE conditions. The mean fractional mass of dust sources to host GMC mass is 0.11 (-0.06, +0.12). The high column density subregions comprise 0.07 (-0.05, +0.13) of the mass of the cloud. Owing to our assumptions, these values are upper limits to the true mass fractions. The fractional mass of dense gas is independent of GMC mass and gas surface density. The low dense gas mass fraction suggests that the formation of dense structures within GMCs is the primary bottleneck for star formation. The distribution of velocity differences between the dense gas and the low density material along the line of sight is also examined. We find a strong, centrally peaked distribution centered on zero velocity displacement. This distribution of velocity differences is modeled with radially converging flows towards the dense gas position that are randomly oriented with respect to the observed line of sight. These models constrain the infall velocities to be 2-4 km/s for various flow configurations.

12 pages, 6 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in ApJ

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