The segregation of starless and protostellar clumps in the Hi-GAL l=224deg region

TL;DR

This study investigates the spatial segregation and physical properties of starless and protostellar clumps within filamentary structures in the Hi-GAL l=224deg region, revealing their different dynamics, stability, and evolutionary stages.

Contribution

It provides observational constraints on the dynamics and stability of filaments and associated clumps, highlighting the correlation between filament properties and clump evolution.

Findings

Protostellar clumps are more luminous and turbulent.

Protostellar clumps are located along the main filament.

Main filament is thermally supercritical and gravitationally bound.

Abstract

Stars form in dense, dusty structures, which are embedded in larger clumps of molecular clouds often showing a clear filamentary structure on large scales (> 1pc). One of the best-studied regions in the Hi-GAL survey can be observed toward the l=224deg field. Here, a filamentary region has been studied and it has been found that protostellar clumps are mostly located along the main filament, whereas starless clumps are detected off this filament and are instead found on secondary, less prominent filaments. We want to investigate this segregation effect and how it may affect the clumps properties. We mapped the 12CO(1-0) line and its main three isotopologues toward the two most prominent filaments observed toward the l=224deg field using the Mopra radio telescope, in order to set observational constraints on the dynamics of these structures and the associated starless and protostellar clumps. Compared to the starless clumps, the protostellar clumps are more luminous, more turbulent and lie in regions where the filamentary ambient gas shows larger linewidths. We see evidence of gas flowing along the main filament, but we do not find any signs of accretion flow from the filament onto the Hi-GAL clumps. We analyze the radial column density profile of the filaments and their gravitational stability. The more massive and highly fragmented main filament appears to be thermally supercritical and gravitationally bound, assuming that all of the non-thermal motion is contributing thermal-like support, suggesting a later stage of evolution compared to the secondary filament. The status and evolutionary phase of the Hi-GAL clumps would then appear to correlate with that of the host filament.