Dynamical accretion flows: ALMAGAL: Flows along filamentary structures in high-mass star-forming clusters
Journal article, 2024
Context. Investigating the flow of material along filamentary structures towards the central core can help provide insights into high-mass star formation and evolution. Aims. Our main motivation is to answer the question of what the properties of accretion flows are in star-forming clusters. We used data from the ALMA Evolutionary Study of High Mass Protocluster Formation in the Galaxy (ALMAGAL) survey to study 100 ALMAGAL regions at a ~1″ resolution, located between ~2 and 6 kpc. Methods. Making use of the ALMAGAL ~1.3 mm line and continuum data, we estimated flow rates onto individual cores. We focus specifically on flow rates along filamentary structures associated with these cores. Our primary analysis is centered around position velocity cuts in H2CO (30, 3- 20, 2), which allow us to measure the velocity fields surrounding these cores. Combining this work with column density estimates, we were able to derive the flow rates along the extended filamentary structures associated with cores in these regions. Results. We selected a sample of 100 ALMAGAL regions, covering four evolutionary stages from quiescent to protostellar, young stellar objects (YSOs), and HII regions (25 each). Using a dendrogram and line analysis, we identify a final sample of 182 cores in 87 regions. In this paper, we present 728 flow rates for our sample (4 per core), analysed in the context of evolutionary stage, distance from the core, and core mass. On average, for the whole sample, we derived flow rates on the order of ~10-4 M⊙ yr-1 with estimated uncertainties of ±50%. We see increasing differences in the values among evolutionary stages, most notably between the less evolved (quiescent and protostellar) and more evolved (YSO and HII region) sources and we also see an increasing trend as we move further away from the centre of these cores. We also find a clear relationship between the calculated flow rates and core masses ~M2/3, which is in line with the result expected from the tidal-lobe accretion mechanism. The significance of these relationships is tested with Kolmogorov- Smirnov and Mann-Whitney U tests. Conclusions. Overall, we see an increasing trend in the relationships between the flow rate and the three investigated parameters, namely: evolutionary stage, distance from the core, and core mass.
Stars: evolution
Stars: massive
Accretion, accretion disks
Author
M. R.A. Wells
Max Planck Society
H. Beuther
Max Planck Society
S. Molinari
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
P. Schilke
University of Cologne
C. Battersby
University of Connecticut
P. T. P. Ho
Academia Sinica
East Asian Observatory
A. Sanchez-Monge
Institute of Space Sciences (ICE) - CSIC
Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC)
B. M. Jones
University of Cologne
M. B. Scheuck
Max Planck Society
J. Syed
Max Planck Society
C. Gieser
Max Planck Society
Rolf Kuiper
University of Duisburg-Essen
Davide Elia
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
A. Coletta
Sapienza University of Rome
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
A. Traficante
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
J. Wallace
University of Connecticut
Andrew Rigby
University of Leeds
R. S. Klessen
Heidelberg University
Q. Zhang
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Stefanie Walch
University of Cologne
M. T. Beltrán
Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory
Ya-Wen Tang
Academia Sinica
G. A. Fuller
University of Manchester
University of Cologne
D. C. Lis
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
T. Moller
University of Cologne
F. F. S. van der Tak
Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON)
University of Groningen
Pamela Klaassen
Royal Observatory
S. D. Clarke
Academia Sinica
University of Cologne
L. Moscadelli
Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory
C. Mininni
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
H. Zinnecker
Autonomous University of Chile
Y. Maruccia
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
Stefano Pezzuto
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
M. Benedettini
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
J. D. Soler
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
C. L. Brogan
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
A Avison
SKA Organisation
University of Manchester
UK ALMA Regional Centre Node
Patricio Sanhueza
The Graduate University for Advanced Studies (SOKENDAI)
National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
E. Schisano
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
Tie Liu
Shanghai Astronomical Observatory
Francesco Fontani
Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory
Paris Observatory
Max Planck Society
Kazi L.J. Rygl
Istituto di Radioastronomia
F. Wyrowski
Max Planck Society
J. Bally
University of Colorado at Boulder
D. L. Walker
UK ALMA Regional Centre Node
A. Ahmadi
Leiden University
Patrick M. Koch
Academia Sinica
M. Merello
University of Chile (UCH)
Chi Yan Law
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Astronomy and Plasmaphysics
European Southern Observatory (ESO)
L. Testi
Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia Augusto Righi
Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory
Astronomy and Astrophysics
0004-6361 (ISSN) 1432-0746 (eISSN)
Vol. 690 A185Subject Categories
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Fluid Mechanics and Acoustics
DOI
10.1051/0004-6361/202449794
Related datasets
URI: https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ A+A/690/A185