ALMA observations of NGC 6334S $-$ I: Forming massive stars and cluster in subsonic and transonic filamentary clouds

Abstract

We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA) observations of the massive infrared dark cloud NGC 6334S (also known as IRDC G350.56+0.44), located at the southwestern end of the NGC 6334 molecular cloud complex. The H${}^{13}$CO${}^{+}$ and the NH${}_2$D lines covered by the ALMA observations at a $\sim$3${}^{\prime \prime }$ angular resolution ($\sim$0.02 pc) reveal that the spatially unresolved non-thermal motions are predominantly subsonic and transonic, a condition analogous to that found in low-mass star-forming molecular clouds. The observed supersonic non-thermal velocity dispersions in massive star forming regions, often reported in the literature, might be significantly biased by poor spatial resolutions that broaden the observed line widths due to unresolved motions within the telescope beam. Our 3~mm continuum image resolves 49 dense cores, whose masses range from 0.17 to 14 $M_{\odot }$. The majority of them are resolved with multiple velocity components. Our analyses of these gas velocity components find an anti-correlation between the gas mass and the virial parameter. This implies that the more massive structures tend to be more gravitationally unstable. Finally, we find that the external pressure in the NGC 6334S cloud is important in confining these dense structures, and may play a role in the formation of dense cores, and subsequently, the embedded young stars.

arXiv comment30 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

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