The Aquila prestellar core population revealed by Herschel

TL;DR

This study uses Herschel data to analyze the prestellar core population in the Aquila Rift, revealing that the core mass function closely resembles the stellar initial mass function, providing insights into star formation processes.

Contribution

First comprehensive Herschel-based analysis of the Aquila prestellar core population, confirming the similarity between the core mass function and the stellar IMF.

Findings

Detected 541 prestellar cores in Aquila Rift.

Most cores are gravitationally bound and prestellar.

Core mass function closely resembles the stellar IMF.

Abstract

The origin and possible universality of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is a major issue in astrophysics. One of the main objectives of the Herschel Gould Belt Survey is to clarify the link between the prestellar core mass function (CMF) and the IMF. We present and discuss the core mass function derived from Herschel data for the large population of prestellar cores discovered with SPIRE and PACS in the Aquila Rift cloud complex at d ~ 260 pc. We detect a total of 541 starless cores in the entire ~11 deg^2 area of the field imaged at 70-500 micron with SPIRE/PACS. Most of these cores appear to be gravitationally bound, and thus prestellar in nature. Our Herschel results confirm that the shape of the prestellar CMF resembles the stellar IMF, with much higher quality statistics than earlier submillimeter continuum ground-based surveys.