Abstract
Aims. The infall of material onto a protostar, in the case of optically thick line emission, produces an asymmetry in the blue- and red-wing line emissions. For an angularly resolved emission, this translates in a blue central spot in the first-order moment (intensity weighted velocity) map. Methods. An analytical expression for the first-order moment intensity as a function of the projected distance was derived, for the cases of infinite and finite infall radius. The effect of a finite angular resolution, which requires the numerical convolution with the beam, was also studied. Results. This method was applied to existing data of several star-forming regions, namely G31.41+0.31 HMC, B335, and LDN 1287, obtaining good fits to the first-order moment intensity maps, and deriving values of the central masses onto which the infall is taking place (G31.41+0.31 HMC: 70–120 M⊙; B335: 0.1 M⊙; Guitar Core of LDN 1287: 4.8 M⊙). The central-blue-spot infall hallmark appears to be a robust and reliable indicator of infall.
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