Properties of the cores and filaments in the Ophiuchus molecular cloud and its L1688 hub-filament system

TL;DR

This study investigates the properties and distribution of dense cores and filaments in the Ophiuchus molecular cloud, revealing filament-dominated core formation as a key process in star formation within the L1688 hub-filament system.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of cores and filaments using Herschel data, introducing methods to evaluate core mass segregation and filament properties in the context of star formation.

Findings

Filament-dominated core formation is prevalent in the system.

Core mass function shows a characteristic distribution.

Filament properties correlate with star formation activity.

Abstract

Analyzing filaments and cores in molecular clouds is key to understanding galactic star formation and its environmental dependence. This paper studies the properties and distribution of dense cores and filaments in the Ophiuchus molecular cloud, with a focus on the L1688 hub-filament system (HFS) and its star formation potential. We extracted sources and filaments from Herschel images and a 13.5 arcsec resolution surface density map using the getsf method, identified prestellar cores among the extracted sources, evaluated core mass segregation, and constructed the core mass function (CMF). We derived properties of the filaments from their radial surface density profiles, constructed the filament linear density function (FLDF), and assessed the mass distribution in the L1688 HFS to estimate the core and filament formation efficiencies (CFE, FFE). The results suggest that the filament-dominated core formation is a key mechanism in star formation within the system.