HOT MOLECULAR CORES IN INFRARED DARK CLOUDS

Abstract

We present high angular resolution continuum images and molecular line spectra obtained at 345 GHz with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) toward two massive cores that lie within Infrared Dark Clouds (IRDCs): G034.43+00.24 MM1 and G024.33+00.11 MM1. Both of these cores contain bright, unresolved (<2'') objects that have previously been imaged in the millimeter/submillimeter continuum with the Institut de RadioAstronomie Millimetrique (IRAM) Plateau de Bure Interferometer and SMA and show complex molecular line chemistry. The new, higher angular resolution SMA continuum images reveal that both cores contain massive (8, 26 M ☉), unresolved (06; ~3000 AU) continuum emission features and emission from many complex molecular transitions, which confirm that these are hot molecular cores, an early stage in the formation of a high-mass star. Because these hot cores are located within IRDCs, they may well represent the very earliest phases in the formation of high-mass protostars and, hence, their detailed study may reveal the initial conditions within high-mass star-forming cores, before they are shredded apart by stellar winds and radiation.