Evolution Of Molecular Clouds Research Articles

Extension of the multilevel radiative transfer code PyRaTE to model linear polarization of molecular lines

Linear polarization of spectral lines, commonly known as the Goldreich-Kylafis effect within the star formation community, is one of the most underutilized techniques for probing magnetic fields in the dense and cold interstellar medium. In this study, we implement linear polarization of molecular spectral lines into the multilevel, non-local thermodynamic equilibrium radiative transfer code PyRaTE Different modes of polarized radiation are treated individually, with separate optical depths computed for each polarization direction. Our implementation is valid in the so-called strong magnetic field limit and is exact for either a system satisfying the large-velocity-gradient approximation, and/or for any system with a uniform magnetic field. We benchmark our implementation against analytical results and provide tests for various limiting cases. In agreement with previous theoretical results, we find that in the multilevel case the amount of fractional polarization decreases when compared to the two-level approximation, but this result is subject to the relative importance between radiative and collisional processes. Finally, we post-process an axially symmetric, nonideal magnetohydrodynamic chemo-dynamical simulation of a collapsing prestellar core and provide theoretical predictions regarding the shape (as a function of velocity) of the polarization fraction of $ CO $ during the early stages in the evolution of molecular clouds.

Thermodynamics of Giant Molecular Clouds: The Effects of Dust Grain Size

The dust grain size distribution (GSD) likely varies significantly across star-forming environments in the Universe, but its impact on star formation remains unclear. This ambiguity arises because the GSD interacts nonlinearly with processes like heating, cooling, radiation, and chemistry, which have competing effects and varying environmental dependencies. Processes such as grain coagulation, expected to be efficient in dense star-forming regions, reduce the abundance of small grains and increase that of larger grains. Motivated by this, we investigate the effects of similar GSD variations on the thermochemistry and evolution of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) using magnetohydrodynamic simulations spanning a range of cloud masses and grain sizes, which explicitly incorporate the dynamics of dust grains within the full-physics framework of the STARFORGE project. We find that grain size variations significantly alter GMC thermochemistry: the leading-order effect is that larger grains, under fixed dust mass, GSD dynamic range, and dust-to-gas ratio, result in lower dust opacities. This reduced opacity permits interstellar radiation field and internal radiation photons to penetrate more deeply. This leads to rapid gas heating and inhibited star formation. Star formation efficiency is highly sensitive to grain size, with an order-of-magnitude reduction when grain size dynamic range increases from 10−3–0.1 μm to 0.1–10 μm. Additionally, warmer gas suppresses low-mass star formation, and decreased opacities result in a greater proportion of gas in diffuse ionized structures.

Mapping and characterizing magnetic fields in the Rho Ophiuchus-A molecular cloud with SOFIA/HAWC+

Context. Together with gravity, turbulence, and stellar feedback, magnetic fields (B-fields) are thought to play a critical role in the evolution of molecular clouds and star formation processes. The polarization of thermal dust emission is a popular tracer of B-fields in star-forming regions. Aims. We aim to map the morphology and measure the strength of B-fields of the nearby molecular cloud, rho Ophiuchus-A (ρ Oph-A), to understand the role of B-fields in regulating star formation and in shaping the cloud. Methods. We analyzed the far-infrared (FIR) polarization of thermal dust emission observed by SOFIA/HAWC+ at 89 and 154 μm toward the densest part of ρ Oph-A, which is irradiated by the nearby B3/4 star, Oph-S1. These FIR polarimetric maps cover an area of ~4.5′ × 4.5′ (corresponding to 0″.18 × 0″.18 pc2) with an angular resolution of 7.8″ and 13.6″ respectively. Results. The ρ Oph-A cloud exhibits well-ordered B-fields with magnetic orientations that are mainly perpendicular to the ridge of the cloud toward the densest region. We obtained a map of B-field strengths in the range of 0.2–2.5 mG, using the Davis-Chandrasekhar-Fermi (DCF) method. The B-fields are strongest at the densest part of the cloud, which is associated with the starless core SM1, and then decrease toward the outskirts of the cloud. By calculating the map of the mass-to-flux ratio, Alfvén Mach number, and plasma β parameter in ρ Oph-A, we find that the cloud is predominantly magnetically sub-critical, sub-Alfvénic, which implies that the cloud is supported by strong B-fields that dominate over gravity, turbulence, and thermal gas energy. The measured B-field strengths at the two densest subsregions using other methods that account for the compressible mode are relatively lower than that measured with the DCF method. However, these results do not significantly change our conclusions on the roles of B-fields relative to gravity and turbulence on star formation. Our virial analysis suggests that the cloud is gravitationally unbound, which is consistent with the previous detection of numerous starless cores in the cloud. By comparing the magnetic pressure with the radiation pressure from the Oph-S1 star, we find that B-fields are sufficiently strong to support the cloud against radiative feedback and to regulate the shape of the cloud.

A new analytic approach to infer the cosmic-ray ionization rate in hot molecular cores from HCO+, N2H+, and CO observations

Context. The cosmic-ray ionization rate (ζ2) is one of the key parameters in star formation, since it regulates the chemical and dynamical evolution of molecular clouds by ionizing molecules and determining the coupling between the magnetic field and gas. Aims. However, measurements of ζ2 in dense clouds (e.g., nH ≥ 104 cm−3) are difficult and sensitive to the model assumptions. The aim is to find a convenient analytic approach that can be used in high-mass star-forming regions (HMSFRs), especially for warm gas environments such as hot molecular cores (HMCs). Methods. We propose a new analytic approach to calculate ζ2 through HCO+, N2H+, and CO measurements. By comparing our method with various astrochemical models and with observations found in the literature, we identify the parameter space for which the analytic approach is applicable. Results. Our method gives a good approximation, to within 50%, of ζ2 in dense and warm gas (e.g., nH ≥ 104 cm−3, T = 50, 100 K) for AV ≥ 4 mag and t ≥ 2 × 104 yr at Solar metallicity. The analytic approach gives better results for higher densities. However, it starts to underestimate ζ2 at low metallicity (Z = 0.1 Z⊙) when the value is too high (ζ2 ≥ 3 × 10−15 s−1). By applying our method to the OMC-2 FIR4 envelope and the L1157-B1 shock region, we find ζ2 values of (1.0 ± 0.3) × 10−14 s−1 and (2.2 ± 0.4) × 10−16 s−1, consistent with those previously reported. Conclusions. We calculate ζ2 toward a total of 82 samples in HMSFRs, finding that the average value of ζ2 toward all HMC samples (ζ2 = (7.4±5.0)×10−16 s−1) is more than an order of magnitude higher than the theoretical prediction of cosmic-ray attenuation models, favoring the scenario that locally accelerated cosmic rays in embedded protostars should be responsible for the observed high ζ2.

ACA CO(J = 2–1) mapping of the nearest spiral galaxy M 33. II. Exploring the evolution of giant molecular clouds

Abstract The evolution of giant molecular clouds (GMCs), the main sites of high-mass star formation, is an essential process to unravel the galaxy evolution. Using a GMC catalogue of M 33 from the ALMA-ACA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array–Atacama Compact Array) survey, we classified 848 GMCs into three types based on the association with H ii regions and their H$\alpha$ luminosities $L\, (\rm{H}\alpha )$: Type I is associated with no H ii regions; Type II with H ii regions of $L\, (\rm{H}\alpha )$ $\lt 10^{37.5}$ erg s$^{-1}$; and Type III with H ii regions of $L\, (\rm{H}\alpha )$ $\geqq$ $10^{37.5}$ erg s$^{-1}$. These criteria yield 224 Type I GMCs, 473 Type II GMCs, and 151 Type III GMCs. GMCs show changes in their physical properties according to the types; mass, radius, velocity dispersion, and $^{13}$CO detection rate of GMCs systematically increase from Type I to Type III, and additionally, Type III GMCs are closest to virial equilibrium. Type III GMCs show the highest spatial correlation with clusters younger than $10\:$Myr, Type II GMCs moderate correlation, and Type I GMCs are almost uncorrelated. We interpret that these types indicate an evolutionary sequence from Type I to Type II, and then to Type III with timescales of 4 Myr, 13 Myr, and 5 Myr, respectively, indicating a GMC lifetime of 22 Myr by assuming that a Type II GMC has the same timescale as the Large Magellanic Cloud. The evolved GMCs are concentrated on the spiral arms, while the younger GMCs are apart from the arm, both to the leading and trailing sides. This indicates that GMCs collide with each other via the spiral potential, leading to the compression of GMCs and the triggering of high-mass star formation, which may support the dynamic spiral model. Overall, we suggest that the GMC evolution concept helps illuminate the galaxy evolution, including the spiral arm formation.

Multiscale accretion in dense cloud cores and the delayed formation of massive stars

ABSTRACT The formation mechanism of massive stars remains one of the main open problems in astrophysics, in particular the relationship between the mass of the most massive stars and that of the cores in which they form. Numerical simulations of the formation and evolution of molecular clouds, within which dense cores and stars form self-consistently, show that the core mass increases in time, and also that the most massive stars tend to appear later than lower mass stars. We present an idealized model that incorporates accretion onto the cores as well as onto the stars, in which the core mass growth is regulated by a ‘gravitational choking’ mechanism that does not involve any form of support. This process is of purely gravitational origin, and causes some of the mass accreted onto cores to stagnate there, rather than being transferred to the stars. In addition, we estimate the mass of the most massive allowed star before its photoionizing radiation is capable of overcoming the accretion flow. This model constitutes a proof of concept for the simultaneous growth of the gas reservoir and the stellar mass, the delay in the formation of massive stars observed in numerical simulations, the need for massive, dense cores in order to form massive stars, and the observed correlation between the mass of the most massive star and the mass of the cluster it resides in. Also, our model implies that by the time massive stars begin to form in a core, a number of low-mass stars are expected to have already formed.

CO Mapping of Cygnus-X—Volume Density Distribution

We present CO(2-1) and 13CO(2-1) maps of the Cygnus-X molecular cloud complex using the 10 m Heinrich Hertz Submillimeter Telescope. The maps cover the southern portion of the complex, which is strongly impacted by the feedback from the Cygnus OB2 association. Combining CO(1-0) and 13CO(1-0) maps from the Nobeyama 45 m Cygnus-X CO Survey, we carry out a multitransition molecular line analysis with RADEX and derive the volume density of velocity-coherent gas components. We select those components with a column density in the power-law tail part of the column density probability distribution function (N-PDF) and assemble their volume density into a volume density PDF (ρ-PDF). The ρ-PDF exhibits a power-law shape in the range of 104.5 cm−3 105.5 cm−3 with a fitted slope of α = −1.12 ± 0.05. The slope is shallower than what is predicted by simulations of rotationally supported structures or those undergoing gravitational collapse. Applying the same analysis to synthetic observations with feedback may help identify the cause of the shallow slope. The ρ-PDF provides another useful benchmark for testing models of molecular cloud formation and evolution.

Cloud–cloud collisions triggering star formation in galaxy simulations

ABSTRACT Cloud–cloud collisions (CCCs) are expected to compress gas and trigger star formation. However, it is not well understood how the collisions and the induced star formation affect galactic-scale properties. By developing an on-the-fly algorithm to identify CCCs at each time-step in a galaxy simulation and a model that relates CCC-triggered star formation to collision speeds, we perform simulations of isolated galaxies to study the evolution of galaxies and giant molecular clouds (GMCs) with prescriptions of self-consistent CCC-driven star formation and stellar feedback. We find that the simulation with the CCC-triggered star formation produces slightly higher star formation rates and a steeper Kennicutt–Schmidt relation than that with a more standard star formation recipe, although collision speeds and frequencies are insensitive to the star formation models. In the simulation with the CCC model, about $70{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the stars are born via CCCs, and colliding GMCs with masses of $\approx 10^{5.5}\, \mbox{$\rm M_{\odot}$}$ are the main drivers of CCC-driven star formation. In the simulation with the standard star formation recipe, about 50 per cent of stars are born in colliding GMCs even without the CCC-triggered star formation model. These results suggest that CCCs may be one of the most important star formation processes in galaxy evolution. Furthermore, we find that a post-processing analysis of CCCs, as used in previous studies in galaxy simulations, may lead to slightly greater collision speeds and significantly lower collision frequencies than the on-the-fly analysis.

Clouds of Theseus: long-lived molecular clouds are composed of short-lived H2 molecules

ABSTRACT We use passive gas tracer particles in an Arepo simulation of a dwarf spiral galaxy to relate the Lagrangian evolution of star-forming gas parcels and their H2 molecules to the evolution of their host giant molecular clouds. We find that the median chemical lifetime of H2 is 4 Myr, with an interquartile range between 2 and 9 Myr. This chemical lifetime is independent of the lifetime of the host molecular cloud, which may extend up to 90 Myr, with around 50 per cent of star formation occurring in longer lived clouds (>25 Myr). The rapid ejection of gas from around young massive stars by early stellar feedback is responsible for the short H2 survival time, driving down the density of the surrounding gas, so that its H2 molecules are dissociated by the interstellar radiation field. This ejection of gas from the H2-dominated state is balanced by the constant accretion of new gas from the galactic environment, constituting a ‘competition model’ for molecular cloud evolution. Gas ejection occurs at a rate that is proportional to the molecular cloud mass, so that the cloud lifetime is determined by the accretion rate, which may be as high as 4 × 104 M⊙ Myr−1 in the longest lived clouds. Our findings therefore resolve the conflict between observations of rapid gas ejection around young massive stars and observations of long-lived molecular clouds in galaxies. We show that the fastest-accreting, longest lived, highest mass clouds drive supernova clustering on sub-cloud scales, which in turn is a key driver of galactic outflows.

2a Results: galaxy to cloud scales

Simulations from the scales of isolated galaxies to clouds have been instrumental in informing us about molecular cloud formation and evolution. Simulations are able to investigate the roles of gravity, feedback, turbulence, heating and cooling, and magnetic fields on the physics of the interstellar medium, and star formation. Compared to simulations of individual clouds, galactic and sub-galactic scale simulations can include larger galactic scale processes such as spiral arms, bars, and larger supernovae bubbles, which may influence star formation. Simulations show cloud properties and lifetimes in broad agreement with observations. Gravity and spiral arms are required to produce more massive GMCs, whilst stellar feedback, likely photoionisation, leads to relatively short cloud lifetimes. On larger scales, supernovae may be more dominant in driving the structure and dynamics, but photoionisation may still have a role. In terms of the dynamics, feedback is probably the main driver of velocity dispersions, but large scale processes such as gravity and spiral arms may also be significant. Magnetic fields are generally found to decrease star formation on galaxy or cloud scales, and simulations are ongoing to study whether clouds are sub or supercritical on different scales in galaxy scale simulations. Simulations on subgalactic scales, or zoom in simulations, allow better resolution of feedback processes, filamentary structure within clouds, and the study of stellar clusters.

Predicting the Radiation Field of Molecular Clouds Using Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models

Accurately quantifying the impact of radiation feedback in star formation is challenging. To address this complex problem, we employ deep-learning techniques known as denoising diffusion probabilistic models (DDPMs) to predict the interstellar radiation field (ISRF) strength based on three-band dust emission at 4.5, 24, and 250 μm. We adopt magnetohydrodynamic simulations from the STARFORGE project that model star formation and giant molecular cloud (GMC) evolution. We generate synthetic dust emission maps matching observed spectral energy distributions in the Monoceros R2 (MonR2) GMC. We train DDPMs to estimate the ISRF using synthetic three-band dust emission. The dispersion between the predictions and true values is within a factor of 0.1 for the test set. We extended our assessment of the diffusion model to include new simulations with varying physical parameters. While there is a consistent offset observed in these out-of-distribution simulations, the model effectively constrains the relative intensity to within a factor of 2. Meanwhile, our analysis reveals a weak correlation between the ISRF solely derived from dust temperature and the actual ISRF. We apply our trained model to predict the ISRF in MonR2, revealing a correspondence between intense ISRF, bright sources, and high dust emission, confirming the model’s ability to capture ISRF variations. Our model robustly predicts radiation feedback distribution, even in complex, poorly constrained ISRF environments like those influenced by nearby star clusters. However, precise ISRF predictions require an accurate training data set mirroring the target molecular cloud’s unique physical conditions.

A Theoretical Approach to the Complex Chemical Evolution of Phosphorus in the Interstellar Medium

The study of phosphorus chemistry in the interstellar medium has become a topic of growing interest in astrobiology because it is plausible that a wide range of P-bearing molecules were introduced in the early Earth by the impact of asteroids and comets on its surface, enriching prebiotic chemistry. Thanks to extensive searches in recent years, it has become clear that P mainly appears in the form of PO and PN in molecular clouds and star-forming regions. Interestingly, PO is systematically more abundant than PN by factors typically of ∼1.4–3, independently of the physical properties of the observed source. In order to unveil the formation routes of PO and PN, in this work we introduce a mathematical model for the time evolution of the chemistry of P in an interstellar molecular cloud and analyze its associated chemical network as a complex dynamical system. By making reasonable assumptions, we reduce the network to obtain explicit mathematical expressions that describe the abundance evolution of P-bearing species and study the dependences of the abundance of PO and PN on the system’s kinetic parameters with much faster computation times than available numerical methods. As a result, our model reveals that the formation of PO and PN is governed by just a few critical reactions, and fully explains the relationship between PO and PN abundances throughout the evolution of molecular clouds. Finally, the application of Bayesian methods constrains the real values of the most influential reaction rate coefficients making use of available observational data.

The impact of H II regions on giant molecular cloud properties in nearby galaxies sampled by PHANGS ALMA and MUSE

Context. The final stages of molecular cloud evolution involve cloud disruption due to feedback by massive stars, with recent literature suggesting the importance of early (i.e., pre-supernova) feedback mechanisms. Aims. We aim to determine whether feedback from massive stars in H II regions has a measurable impact on the physical properties of molecular clouds at a characteristic scale of ~ 100 pc, and whether the imprint of feedback on the molecular gas depends on the local galactic environment. Methods. We identified giant molecular clouds (GMCs) associated with H II regions for a sample of 19 nearby galaxies from catalogs of GMCs and H II regions released by the PHANGS-ALMA and PHANGS-MUSE surveys, using the overlap of the CO and Hα emission as the key criterion for physical association. We compared the distributions of GMC and H II region properties for paired and non-paired objects. We investigated correlations between GMC and H II region properties among galaxies and across different galactic environments to determine whether GMCs that are associated with H II regions have significantly distinct physical properties compared to the parent GMC population. Results. We identify trends between the Hα luminosity of an H II region and the CO peak brightness and molecular mass of GMCs that we tentatively attribute to a direct physical connection between the matched objects, and which arise independently of the underlying environmental variations of GMC and H II region properties within galaxies. The study of the full sample nevertheless hides a large galaxy-to-galaxy variability. Conclusions. At the ~100 pc scales accessed by the PHANGS-ALMA and PHANGS-MUSE data, pre-supernova feedback mechanisms in H II regions have a subtle but measurable impact on the properties of the surrounding molecular gas, as inferred from CO observations.

The extremely sharp transition between molecular and ionized gas in the Horsehead nebula

Massive stars can determine the evolution of molecular clouds by eroding and photo-evaporating their surfaces with strong ultraviolet (UV) radiation fields. Moreover, UV radiation is relevant in setting the thermal gas pressure in star-forming clouds, whose influence can extend across various spatial scales, from the rims of molecular clouds to entire star-forming galaxies. Probing the fundamental structure of nearby molecular clouds is therefore crucial to understand how massive stars shape their surrounding medium and how fast molecular clouds are destroyed, specifically at their UV-illuminated edges, where models predict an intermediate zone of neutral atomic gas between the molecular cloud and the surrounding ionized gas whose size is directly related to the exposed physical conditions. We present the highest angular resolution (~0.″5, corresponding to 207 au) and velocity-resolved images of the molecular gas emission in the Horsehead nebula, using CO J = 3–2 and HCO+ J = 4−3 observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). We find that CO and HCO+ are present at the edge of the cloud, very close to the ionization (H+/H) and dissociation fronts (H/H2), suggesting a very thin layer of neutral atomic gas (<650 au) and a small amount of CO-dark gas (AV = 0.006–0.26 mag) for stellar UV illumination conditions typical of molecular clouds in the Milky Way. The new ALMA observations reveal a web of molecular gas filaments with an estimated thermal gas pressure of Pth = (2.3 – 4.0) × 106 K cm−3, and the presence of a steep density gradient at the cloud edge that can be well explained by stationary isobaric photo-dissociation region (PDR) models with pressures consistent with our estimations. However, in the H II region and PDR interface, we find Pth,PDR > Pth,H II suggesting the gas is slightly compressed. Therefore, dynamical effects cannot be completely ruled out and even higher angular observations will be needed to unveil their role.

Astrochemical models of interstellar ices: History matters

Context. Ice is ubiquitous in the interstellar medium. As soon as it becomes slightly opaque in the visible, it can be seen for visual extinctions (AV) above ~1.5. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will observe the ice composition toward hundreds of lines of sight, covering a broad range of physical conditions in these extinct regions. Aims. We model the formation of the main constituents of interstellar ices, including H2O, CO2, CO, and CH3OH. We strive to understand what physical or chemical parameters influence the final composition of the ice and how they benchmark to what has already been observed, with the aim of applying these models to the preparation and analysis of JWST observations. Methods. We used the Nautilus gas-grain model, which computes the gas and ice composition as a function of time for a set of physical conditions, starting from an initial gas phase composition. All important processes (gas-phase reactions, gas-grain interactions, and grain surface processes) are included and solved with the rate equation approximation. Results. We first ran an astrochemical code for fixed conditions of temperature and density mapped in the cold core L429-C to benchmark the chemistry. One key parameter was revealed to be the dust temperature. When the dust temperature is higher than 12 K, CO2 will form efficiently at the expense of H2O, while at temperatures below 12 K, it will not form. Whatever hypothesis we assumed for the chemistry (within realistic conditions), the static simulations failed to reproduce the observed trends of interstellar ices in our target core. In a second step, we simulated the chemical evolution of parcels of gas undergoing different physical and chemical situations throughout the molecular cloud evolution and starting a few 107 yr prior to the core formation (dynamical simulations). We obtained a large sample of possible ice compositions. The ratio of the different ice components seems to be approximately constant for AV > 5, and in good agreement with the observations. Interestingly, we find that grain temperature and low AV conditions significantly affect the production of ice, especially for CO2, which shows the highest variability. Conclusions. Our dynamical simulations satisfactorily reproduce the main trends already observed for interstellar ices. Moreover, we predict that the apparent constant ratio of CO2/H2O observed to date is probably not true for regions of low AV, and that the history of the evolution of clouds plays an essential role, even prior to their formation.

Three-dimensional magnetic fields of molecular clouds

To investigate the role of magnetic fields in the evolution of the interstellar medium, formation and evolution of molecular clouds, and ultimately the formation of stars, their three-dimensional (3D) magnetic fields must be probed. Observing only one component of magnetic fields (along the line of sight or parallel to the plane of the sky) is insufficient to identify these 3D vectors. In recent years, novel techniques for probing each of these two components and integrating them with additional data (from observations or models), such as Galactic magnetic fields or magnetic field inclination angles, have been developed, in order to infer 3D magnetic fields. We review and discuss these advancements, their applications, and their future direction.

Molecular Cloud Populations in the Context of Their Host Galaxy Environments: A Multiwavelength Perspective

We present a rich, multiwavelength, multiscale database built around the PHANGS–ALMA CO (2 − 1) survey and ancillary data. We use this database to present the distributions of molecular cloud populations and subgalactic environments in 80 PHANGS galaxies, to characterize the relationship between population-averaged cloud properties and host galaxy properties, and to assess key timescales relevant to molecular cloud evolution and star formation. We show that PHANGS probes a wide range of kpc-scale gas, stellar, and star formation rate (SFR) surface densities, as well as orbital velocities and shear. The population-averaged cloud properties in each aperture correlate strongly with both local environmental properties and host galaxy global properties. Leveraging a variable selection analysis, we find that the kpc-scale surface densities of molecular gas and SFR tend to possess the most predictive power for the population-averaged cloud properties. Once their variations are controlled for, galaxy global properties contain little additional information, which implies that the apparent galaxy-to-galaxy variations in cloud populations are likely mediated by kpc-scale environmental conditions. We further estimate a suite of important timescales from our multiwavelength measurements. The cloud-scale freefall time and turbulence crossing time are ∼5–20 Myr, comparable to previous cloud lifetime estimates. The timescales for orbital motion, shearing, and cloud–cloud collisions are longer, ∼100 Myr. The molecular gas depletion time is 1–3 Gyr and shows weak to no correlations with the other timescales in our data. We publish our measurements online, and expect them to have broad utility to future studies of molecular clouds and star formation.

Effects of CO-dark Gas on Measurements of Molecular Cloud Stability and the Size–Linewidth Relationship

Stars form within molecular clouds, so characterizing the physical states of molecular clouds is key to understanding the process of star formation. Cloud structure and stability are frequently assessed using metrics including the virial parameter and Larson scaling relationships between cloud radius, velocity dispersion, and surface density. Departures from the typical Galactic relationships between these quantities have been observed in low-metallicity environments. The amount of H2 gas in cloud envelopes without corresponding CO emission is expected to be high under these conditions; therefore, this CO-dark gas could plausibly be responsible for the observed variations in cloud properties. We derive simple corrections that can be applied to empirical clump properties (mass, radius, velocity dispersion, surface density, and virial parameter) to account for CO-dark gas in clumps following power-law and Plummer mass density profiles. We find that CO-dark gas is not likely to be the cause of departures from Larson’s relationships in low-metallicity regions, but that virial parameters may be systematically overestimated. We demonstrate that correcting for CO-dark gas is critical for accurately comparing the dynamical state and evolution of molecular clouds across diverse environments.

Magnetic Field of Molecular Gas Measured with the Velocity Gradient Technique I. Orion A

Magnetic fields play an important role in the evolution of molecular clouds and star formation. Using the velocity gradient technique (VGT) model, we measured the magnetic field in Orion A using the 12CO, 13CO, and C18O(1-0) emission lines at a scale of ∼0.07 pc. The measured B field shows an east–west orientation that is perpendicular to the integral shaped filament of Orion A at large scale. The VGT magnetic fields obtained from 13CO and C18O are in agreement with the B field that is measured from the Planck 353 GHz dust polarization at a scale of ∼0.55 pc. Removal of density effects by using a velocity decomposition algorithm can significantly improve the accuracy of the VGT in tracing magnetic fields with the 12CO(1-0) line. The magnetic field strengths of seven subclouds, OMC-1, OMC-2, OMC-3, OMC-4, OMC-5, L 1641-N, and NGC 1999, have also been estimated with the Davis–Chandrasekhar–Fermi and the Two Mach Numbers technique, and these are found to be in agreement with previous results obtained from dust polarization at far-infrared and submillimeter wavelengths. At smaller scales, the VGT prove a good method to measure magnetic fields.

Penetration of Nonenergetic Hydrogen Atoms into Amorphous Solid Water and their Reaction with Embedded Benzene and Naphthalene

Chemical processes on the surface of icy grains play an important role in the chemical evolution in molecular clouds. In particular, reactions involving nonenergetic hydrogen atoms accreted from the gaseous phase have been extensively studied. These reactions are believed to effectively proceed only on the surface of the icy grains; thus, molecules embedded in the ice mantle are not considered to react with hydrogen atoms. Recently, Tsuge et al. suggested that nonenergetic hydrogen atoms can react with CO molecules even in ice mantles via diffusive hydrogenation. This investigation was extended to benzene and naphthalene molecules embedded in amorphous solid water (ASW) in the present study, which revealed that a portion of these molecules could be fully hydrogenated in astrophysical environments. The penetration depths of nonenergetic hydrogen atoms into porous and nonporous ASW were determined using benzene molecules to be >50 and ∼10 monolayers, respectively (1 monolayer ≈ 0.3 nm).