CARMA Large Area Star Formation Survey: Dense Gas in the Young L1451 Region of Perseus

Abstract

We present a 3 mm spectral line and continuum survey of L1451 in the Perseus Molecular Cloud. These observations are from the CARMA Large Area Star Formation Survey (CLASSy), which also imaged Barnard 1, NGC 1333, Serpens Main and Serpens South. L1451 is the survey region with the lowest level of star formation activity---it contains no confirmed protostars. HCO+, HCN, and N2H+ (J=1-0) are all detected throughout the region, with HCO+ the most spatially widespread, and molecular emission seen toward 90% of the area above N(H_2) column densities of 1.9x10^21 cm^-2. HCO+ has the broadest velocity dispersion, near 0.3 km/s on average, compared to ~0.15 km/s for the other molecules, thus representing a range from supersonic to subsonic gas motions. Our non-binary dendrogram analysis reveals that the dense gas traced by each molecule has similar hierarchical structure, and that gas surrounding the candidate first hydrostatic core (FHSC), L1451-mm, and other previously detected single-dish continuum clumps have similar hierarchical structure; this suggests that different sub-regions of L1451 are fragmenting on the pathway to forming young stars. We determined the three-dimensional morphology of the largest detectable dense gas structures to be relatively ellipsoidal compared to other CLASSy regions, which appeared more flattened at largest scales. A virial analysis shows the most centrally condensed dust structures are likely unstable against collapse. Additionally, we identify a new spherical, centrally condensed N2H+ feature that could be a new FHSC candidate. The overall results suggest L1451 is a young region starting to form its generation of stars within turbulent, hierarchical structures.

Accepted to The Astrophysical Journal (ApJ), 45 pages, 24 figures (some with reduced resolution in this preprint); Project website is at http://carma.astro.umd.edu/classy

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Cited by in corpus (15)

• ALMA observations of dust polarization and molecular line emission from the Class 0 protostellar source Serpens SMM1
• From diffuse gas to dense molecular cloud cores
• Self-gravitating Filament Formation from Shocked Flows: Velocity Gradients across Filaments
• The Astrochemical Impact of Cosmic Rays in Protoclusters I: Molecular Cloud Chemistry
• Probing the physics of star formation (ProPStar): I. First resolved maps of the electron fraction and cosmic-ray ionization rate in NGC 1333
• Investigating the Complex Velocity Structures within Dense Molecular Cloud Cores with GBT-Argus
• The highly variable time evolution of star-forming cores identified with dendrograms
• SOFIA FEEDBACK Survey: The Pillars of Creation in [C II] and Molecular Lines
• Can we observe the ion-neutral drift velocity in prestellar cores?
• A turbulent origin for the complex envelope kinematics in the young low-mass core Per-Bolo 58
• TIMES I: a Systematic Observation in Multiple Molecular Lines Toward the Orion A and Ophiuchus Clouds
• Gas infalling motions in the envelopes of Very Low Luminosity Objects
• A Catalog of Molecular Clumps and Cores with Infall Signatures
• Prestellar Cores in Turbulent Clouds: Properties of Critical Cores
• The factors that influence protostellar multiplicity II. Gas temperature and mass in Perseus with APEX