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Radial Infall onto a Massive Molecular Filament

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2016

Cara Battersby
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics 60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138USA email: [email protected]
Philip C. Myers
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics 60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138USA email: [email protected]
Yancy L. Shirley
Affiliation:
Steward Observatory, 933 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Eric Keto
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics 60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA 02138USA email: [email protected]
Helen Kirk
Affiliation:
Origins Institute, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4M1, Canada
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Abstract

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The newly discovered Massive Molecular Filament (MMF) G32.02+0.05 (~ 70 pc long, 105 M) has been shaped and compressed by older generations of massive stars. The similarity of this filament in physical structure (density profile, temperature) to much smaller star-forming filaments, suggests that the mechanism to form such filaments may be a universal process. The densest portion of the filament, apparent as an Infrared Dark Cloud (IRDC) shows a range of massive star formation signatures throughout. We investigate the kinematics in this filament and find widespread inverse P cygni asymmetric line profiles. These line asymmetries are interpreted as a signature of large-scale radial collapse. Using line asymmetries observed with optically thick HCO+ (1-0) and optically thin H13CO+ (1-0) across a range of massive star forming regions in the filament, we estimate the global radial infall rate of the filament to range from a few 100 to a few 1000 M Myr−1 pc−1. At its current infall rate the densest portions of the cloud will more than double their current mass within a Myr.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2016 

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