A Low-mass line-rich Core Found in Massive Star-forming Region IRAS 16351-4722

Abstract

We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array subarcsecond-resolution observations of both continuum and molecular lines at 345 GHz toward the massive star-forming region IRAS 16351-4722 (hereafter I16351). A total of 12 dust cores were detected based on high-spatial-resolution observations of the continuum. Among them, a high-mass core (11.6 M ⊙) and a low-mass core (1.7 M ⊙) show abundant molecular line emissions. 164 molecular transitions from 29 species and 104 molecular transitions from 25 species are identified in the high-mass and low-mass cores, respectively. Complex organic molecules (COMs) such as CH3OH, CH3OCHO, CH3OCH3, C2H5OH, and C2H5CN are detected in the two cores. Under the assumption of local thermodynamic equilibrium, the rotational temperatures and column densities of the COMs are derived with the XCLASS software. The maximum rotation temperature values in the low-mass core and the high-mass core were found to be approximately 130 K and 198 K, respectively. Additionally, the line widths in the high-mass core are larger than those in the low-mass one. The abundant COM line transitions, high gas temperatures, and smaller line widths indicate the presence of a low-mass line-rich core in the massive star formation region for the first time, while the high-mass line-rich core shows hot core properties. When comparing the molecular abundances of CH3OH, CH3OCHO, CH3OCH3, and C2H5OH of the two cores with other hot cores and hot corinos reported in the literature, we further confirm that both a hot core and a low-mass line-rich core are simultaneously detected in I16351.