Submillimeter Studies of Prestellar Cores and Protostars: Probing the Initial Conditions for Protostellar Collapse

Abstract

Improving our understanding of the initial conditions and earliest stages of protostellar collapse is crucial to gain insight into the origin of stellar masses, multiple systems, and protoplanetary disks. Observationally, there are two complementary approaches to this problem: (1) studying the structure and kinematics of prestellar cores observed prior to protostar formation, and (2) studying the structure of young (e.g. Class 0) accreting protostars observed soon after point mass formation. We discuss recent advances made in this area thanks to (sub)millimeter mapping observations with large single-dish telescopes and interferometers. In particular, we argue that the beginning of protostellar collapse is much more violent in cluster-forming clouds than in regions of distributed star formation. Major breakthroughs are expected in this field from future large submillimeter instruments such as Herschel and ALMA.

arXiv comment12 pages, 9 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the conference "Chemistry as a Diagnostic of Star Formation" (C.L. Curry & M. Fich eds.)

References in corpus (23)

• Dense Cores in Dark Clouds. XIV. N2H+(1-0) maps of dense cloud cores
• Physical Conditions in Regions of Star Formation
• Gravitational Collapse in Turbulent Molecular Clouds. I. Gasdynamical Turbulence
• Tracing the Mass during Low-Mass Star Formation. II. Modelling the Submillimeter Emission from Pre-Protostellar Cores
• Tracing the Mass during Low-Mass Star Formation. I. Submillimeter Continuum Observations
• A Survey for Infall Motions toward Starless Cores. II. $CS(2-1)$ and $N_2{H}^{+}(1-0)$ Mapping Observations
• SCUBA Polarization Measurements of the Magnetic Field Strengths in the L183, L1544, and L43 Prestellar Cores
• Infall, Outflow, Rotation, and Turbulent Motions of Dense Gas within NGC 1333 IRAS 4
• First Observations of the Magnetic Field Geometry in Pre-stellar Cores
• The dust temperature distribution in prestellar cores
• Molecular line study of the very young protostar IRAM 04191 in Taurus: Infall, rotation, and outflow
• The structure of protostellar envelopes derived from submillimeter continuum images
• The structure and stability of molecular cloud cores in external radiation fields
• The initial conditions of isolated star formation. V: ISOPHOT imaging and the temperature and energy balance of pre-stellar cores
• Testing envelope models of young stellar objects with submillimeter continuum and molecular-line observation
• Dynamic cores in hydrostatic disguise
• Envelope Emission in Young Stellar Systems: A Sub-Arcsecond Survey of Circumstellar Structure
• Protostellar Collapse Induced by Compression
• On the Timescale for the Formation of Protostellar Cores in Magnetic Interstellar Clouds
• The Intrinsic Shapes of Molecular Cloud Fragments over a Range of Length Scales
• A Far-Infrared Survey of Molecular Cloud Cores
• Composite Polytrope Models of Molecular Clouds. I. Theory
• The Physical and Chemical Status of Pre-protostellar Core B68

Cited by in corpus (8)

• The earliest phases of star formation - A Herschel key project. The thermal structure of low-mass molecular cloud cores
• Probing the formation of intermediate- to high-mass stars in protoclusters: A detailed millimeter study of the NGC 2264 clumps
• The Earliest Phases of Star formation observed with Herschel (EPoS): The dust temperature and density distributions of B68
• Protostellar disks formed from rigidly rotating cores
• Sub-Keplerian accretion onto circumstellar disks
• The circumestellar disk of the B0 protostar powering the HH 80-81 radio jet
• Starless Cloud Core L1517B in Envelope Expansion with Core Collapse
• Supersonic turbulence in the cold massive core JCMT 18354-0649S