TRAO Survey of the nearby filamentary molecular clouds, the universal nursery of stars (TRAO FUNS). II. Filaments and Dense cores in IC 5146

TL;DR

This study investigates the physical properties and formation processes of filaments and dense cores in IC 5146, revealing turbulence dissipation, accretion rates, and the role of turbulent flow collisions in core formation.

Contribution

It provides detailed observational analysis of filaments and dense cores in IC 5146, highlighting the turbulence dissipation and mass accretion processes involved in star formation.

Findings

Most filaments are gravitationally supercritical.

Dense cores are subsonic or transonic, cores in hubs show velocity shifts.

Mass accretion rates are estimated at 15-35 M_sun/Myr.

Abstract

We present the results on the physical properties of filaments and dense cores in IC 5146, as a part of the TRAO FUNS project. We carried out On-The-Fly mapping observations using the Taeduk Radio Astronomy Observatory (TRAO) 14m telescope covering about 1 square degree of the area of IC 5146 using various molecular lines. We identified 14 filaments (24 in total, including sub-filaments) from the C$^{18}$O (1-0) data cube and 22 dense cores from the $\rm N_{2}H^{+}$ (1-0) data. We examined the filaments' gravitational criticality, turbulence properties, accretion rate from filaments to dense cores, and relative evolutionary stages of cores. Most filaments in IC 5146 are gravitationally supercritical within the uncertainty, and most dense cores are formed in them. We found that dense cores in the hubs show a systemic velocity shift of ~0.3 km/s between the $\rm N_{2}H^{+}$ and C$^{18}$O gas. Besides, these cores are subsonic or transonic, while the surrounding filament gas is transonic or supersonic, indicating that the cores in the hubs are likely formed by the turbulence dissipation in the colliding turbulent filaments and the merging is still ongoing. We estimated the mass accretion rate of $15 - 35~M_{\odot}~\rm Myr^{-1}$ from the filaments to the dense cores, and the required time scales to collect the current core mass are consistent with the lifetime of the dense cores. The structures of filaments and dense cores in the hub can form by a collision of turbulent converging flows, and mass flow along the filaments to the dense cores may play an important role in forming dense cores.