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149021 - Redshifted methanol absorption tracing infall motions of high-mass star formation regions.pdf (1.63 MB)

Redshifted methanol absorption tracing infall motions of high-mass star formation regions

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posted on 2023-05-21, 06:03 authored by Yang, WJ, Menten, KM, Yang, AY, Wyrowski, F, Gong, Y, Simon EllingsenSimon Ellingsen, Henkel, C, Chen, X, Xu, Y
Context: Gravitational collapse is one of the most important processes in high-mass star formation. Compared with the classic blue-skewed profiles, redshifted absorption against continuum emission is a more reliable method to detect inward motions within high-mass star formation regions.

Aims: We aim to test if methanol transitions can be used to trace infall motions within high-mass star formation regions.

Methods: Using the Effelsberg-100 m, IRAM-30 m, and APEX-12 m telescopes, we carried out observations of 37 and 16 methanol transitions towards two well-known collapsing dense clumps, W31C (G10.6−0.4) and W3(OH), to search for redshifted absorption features or inverse P-Cygni profiles.

Results: Redshifted absorption is observed in 14 and 11 methanol transitions towards W31C and W3(OH), respectively. The infall velocities fitted from a simple two-layer model agree with previously reported values derived from other tracers, suggesting that redshifted methanol absorption is a reliable tracer of infall motions within high-mass star formation regions. Our observations indicate the presence of large-scale inward motions, and the mass infall rates are roughly estimated to be ≳10-3 M yr-1, which supports the global hierarchical collapse and clump-fed scenario.

Conclusions: With the aid of bright continuum sources and the overcooling of methanol transitions leading to enhanced absorption, redshifted methanol absorption can trace infall motions within high-mass star formation regions hosting bright H II regions.

History

Publication title

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Volume

658

Article number

A192

Number

A192

Pagination

1-21

ISSN

0004-6361

Department/School

School of Natural Sciences

Publisher

E D P Sciences

Place of publication

7, Ave Du Hoggar, Parc D Activites Courtaboeuf, Bp 112, Les Ulis Cedexa, France, F-91944

Rights statement

© W. J. Yang et al. 2022 Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Expanding knowledge in the physical sciences

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