Investigations of MWISP Filaments. I. Filament Identification and Analysis Algorithms, and Source Catalogue

TL;DR

This paper introduces DPConCFil, a suite of algorithms for identifying and analyzing filaments in galactic data, demonstrated on MWISP survey data, resulting in a filament catalog and statistical insights.

Contribution

The paper presents novel algorithms for filament identification and analysis, including a consistency-based method and graph-based skeletonization, applied to MWISP data.

Findings

Successfully identified filaments across various scales in MWISP data.

Produced a comprehensive filament catalog with basic parameters.

Provided statistical analysis of filament distribution and properties.

Abstract

Filaments play a crucial role in providing the necessary environmental conditions for star formation, actively participating in the process. To facilitate the identification and analysis of filaments, we introduce DPConCFil (Directional and Positional Consistency between Clumps and Filaments), a suite of algorithms comprising one identification method and two analysis methods. The first method, the consistency-based identification approach, uses directional and positional consistency among neighboring clumps and local filament axes to identify filaments in the PPV datacube. The second method employs a graph-based skeletonization technique to extract the filament intensity skeletons. The third method, a graph-based substructuring approach, allows the decomposition of complex filaments into simpler sub-filaments. We demonstrate the effectiveness of DPConCFil by applying the identification method to the clumps detected in the Milky Way Imaging Scroll Painting (MWISP) survey dataset by FacetClumps, successfully identifying a batch of filaments across various scales within $10^{\circ} \leq l \leq 20^{\circ}$, $-5.25^{\circ} \leq b \leq 5.25^{\circ}$ and -200 km s$^{-1}$ $\leq v \leq$ 200 km s$^{-1}$. Subsequently, we apply the analysis methods to the identified filaments, presenting a catalog with basic parameters and conducting statistics of their galactic distribution and properties. DPConCFil is openly available on GitHub, accompanied by a manual.