Large-scale velocity-coherent filaments in the SEDIGISM survey: Association with spiral arms and the fraction of dense gas

Abstract

Context. Filamentary structures in the interstellar medium are closely related to star formation. It is possible that the dense gas mass fraction (DGMF) or clump formation efficiency in large-scale filaments determine whether or not they end up hosting star formation activity. Aims. We aim to automatically identify large-scale filaments, as well as characterizing them, investigating their association with Galactic structures, and studying their DGMFs. Methods. We used a modified minimum spanning tree (MST) algorithm to chain parsec-scale 13CO clumps previously extracted from the Structure, Excitation, and Dynamics of the Inner Galactic InterStellar Medium (SEDIGISM) survey. The MST connects nodes in a graph such that the sum of edge lengths is at a minimum. A modified MST also ensures the velocity coherence between nodes, so that the identified filaments are coherent in position-position-velocity (PPV) space. Results. We generated a catalog of 88 large-scale (>10 pc) filaments in the inner Galactic plane (with −60° < l < 18° and |b| < 0.5°). These SEDIGISM filaments are larger and less dense than MST filaments previously identified from the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) and the APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL). We find that eight of the filaments run along spiral arms and can be regarded as the “bones” of the Milky Way. We also found three bones associated with the Local spur in PPV space. By compiling 168 large-scale filaments with available DGMF across the Galaxy, namely, an order of magnitude more than previously investigated, we find that DGMFs are not correlated with Galactic location. We also find that bones have higher DGMFs than other filaments.