In search of infall motion in molecular clumps II: HCO+ (1–0) and HCN (1–0) observations toward a sub-sample of infall candidates

Abstract

Gravitational accretion accumulates the original mass. This process is crucial for us to understand the initial phases of star formation. Using the specific infall profiles in optically thick and thin lines, we searched the clumps with infall motion from the Milky Way Imaging Scroll Painting (MWISP) CO data in previous work. In this study, we selected 133 sources as a sub-sample for further research and identification. The excitation temperatures of these sources are between 7.0 and 38.5 K, while the H2 column densities are between 1021 and 1023 cm−2. We have observed optically thick lines HCO+ (1–0) and HCN (1–0) using the DLH 13.7-m telescope, and found 56 sources with a blue profile and no red profile in these two lines, which are likely to have infall motions, with a detection rate of 42%. This suggests that using CO data to restrict the sample can effectively improve the infall detection rate. Among these confirmed infall sources are 43 associated with Class 0/I young stellar objects (YSOs), and 13 which are not. These 13 sources are probably associated with the sources in the earlier evolutionary stage. In comparison, the confirmed sources that are associated with Class 0/I YSOs have higher excitation temperatures and column densities, while the other sources are colder and have lower column densities. Most infall velocities of the sources that we confirmed are between 10−1 to 100 km s−1, which is consistent with previous studies.