CMZoom. II. Catalog of Compact Submillimeter Dust Continuum Sources in the Milky Way’s Central Molecular Zone

Abstract

Abstract In this paper we present the CMZoom survey’s catalog of compact sources (<10″, ∼0.4 pc) within the central molecular zone (CMZ). CMZoom is a Submillimeter Array large program designed to provide a complete and unbiased map of all high column density gas (N(H2) ≥ 1023 cm−2) of the innermost 500 pc of the Galaxy in the 1.3 mm dust continuum. We generate both a robust catalog designed to reduce spurious source detections, and a second catalog with higher completeness, both generated using a pruned dendrogram. In the robust catalog, we report 285 compact sources, or 816 in the high-completeness catalog. These sources have effective radii between 0.04 and 0.4 pc, and are the potential progenitors of star clusters. The masses for both catalogs are dominated by the Sagittarius B2 cloud complex, where masses are likely unreliable due to free–free contamination, uncertain dust temperatures, and line-of-sight confusion. Given the survey selection and completeness, we predict that our robust catalog accounts for more than ∼99% of compact substructure capable of forming high-mass stars in the CMZ. This catalog provides a crucial foundation for future studies of high-mass star formation in the Galactic Center.