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

Citation

Yang, WJ and Menten, KM and Yang, AY and Wyrowski, F and Gong, Y and Ellingsen, SP and Henkel, C and Chen, X and Xu, Y, Redshifted methanol absorption tracing infall motions of high-mass star formation regions, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 658 Article A192. ISSN 0004-6361 (2022) [Refereed Article]


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Copyright 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.

DOI: doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202142811

Abstract

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.

Item Details

Item Type:Refereed Article
Keywords:stars: formation - ISM: kinematics and dynamics - ISM: individual objects: W3(OH) - ISM: individual objects: W31C(G10.6-0.4) - ISM: molecules - radio lines: ISM
Research Division:Physical Sciences
Research Group:Astronomical sciences
Research Field:Galactic astronomy
Objective Division:Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:Expanding knowledge
Objective Field:Expanding knowledge in the physical sciences
UTAS Author:Ellingsen, SP (Professor Simon Ellingsen)
ID Code:149021
Year Published:2022
Deposited By:Office of the School of Natural Sciences
Deposited On:2022-03-01
Last Modified:2022-04-14
Downloads:0

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