# 2021

Shuo Kong, Volker Ossenkopf-Okada, Héctor G. Arce, John Bally, Álvaro Sánchez-Monge, Peregrine McGehee, Sümeyye Suri, Ralf S. Klessen, John M. Carpenter, Dariusz C. Lis, Fumitaka Nakamura, Peter Schilke, Rowan J. Smith, Steve Mairs, Alyssa Goodman, and María José Maureira. 2021. “The CARMA-NRO Orion Survey: Filament Formation via Collision-induced Magnetic Reconnectionthe Stick in Orion A.” The Astrophysical Journal, 906, Pp. 80. Publisher's VersionAbstract
A unique filament is identified in the Herschel maps of the Orion A giant molecular cloud. The filament, which we name the Stick, is ruler-straight and at an early evolutionary stage. Transverse position–velocity diagrams show two velocity components closing in on the Stick. The filament shows consecutive rings/forks in C18O (1−0) channel maps, which is reminiscent of structures generated by magnetic reconnection. We propose that the Stick formed via collision-induced magnetic reconnection (CMR). We use the magnetohydrodynamics code Athena++ to simulate the collision between two diffuse molecular clumps, each carrying an antiparallel magnetic field. The clump collision produces a narrow, straight, dense filament with a factor of >200 increase in density. The production of the dense gas is seven times faster than freefall collapse. The dense filament shows ring/fork-like structures in radiative transfer maps. Cores in the filament are confined by surface magnetic pressure. CMR can be an important dense-gas-producing mechanism in the Galaxy and beyond.
Anika Schmiedeke, Jaime E. Pineda, Paola Caselli, Héctor G. Arce, Gary A Fuller, Alyssa A. Goodman, María José Maureira, Stella S. R. Offner, Dominique Segura-Cox, and Daniel Seifried. 2021. “Dissecting the super-critical filaments embedded in the 0.5 pc subsonic region of Barnard 5.” arXiv, 2101, 00248. Publisher's VersionAbstract
We characterize in detail the two ~0.3 pc long filamentary structures found within the subsonic region of Barnard 5. We use combined GBT and VLA observations of the molecular lines NH3(1,1) and (2,2) at a resolution of 1800 au, as well as JCMT continuum observations at 850 and 450 μm at a resolution of 4400 au and 3000 au, respectively. We find that both filaments are highly super-critical with a mean mass per unit length, M/L, of ~80 M⊙ pc−1, after background subtraction, with local increases reaching values of ~150 M⊙ pc−1. This would require a magnetic field strength of ~500 μG to be stable against radial collapse.
We extract equidistant cuts perpendicular to the spine of the filament and fit a modified Plummer profile as well as a Gaussian to each of the cuts. The filament widths (deconvolved FWHM) range between 6500-7000 au (~0.03 pc) along the filaments. This equals ~2.0 times the radius of the flat inner region. We find an anti-correlation between the central density and this flattening radius, suggestive of contraction. Further, we also find a strong correlation between the power-law exponent at large radii and the flattening radius. We note that the measurements of these three parameters fall in a plane and derive their empirical relation. Our high-resolution observations provide direct constraints of the distribution of the dense gas within super-critical filaments showing pre- and protostellar activity.
Cameren Swiggum, Elena D’Onghia, João Alves, Josefa Großschedl, Michael Foley, Catherine Zucker, Stefan Meingast, Boquan Chen, and Alyssa Goodman. 2021. “Evidence for Radial Expansion at the Core of the Orion Complex with Gaia EDR3.” arXiv, 2101, 10380.Abstract
We present a phase-space study of two stellar groups located at the core of the Orion complex: Briceño-1 and Orion Belt Population-near (OBP-near). We identify the groups with the unsupervised clustering algorithm, Shared Nearest Neighbor (SNN), which previously identified twelve new stellar substructures in the Orion complex. For each of the two groups, we derive the 3D space motions of individual stars using Gaia EDR3 proper motions supplemented by radial velocities from Gaia DR2, APOGEE-2, and GALAH DR3. We present evidence for radial expansion of the two groups from a common center. Unlike previous work, our study suggests that evidence of stellar group expansion is confined only to OBP-near and Briceño-1 whereas the rest of the groups in the complex show more complicated motions. Interestingly, the stars in the two groups lie at the center of a dust shell, as revealed via an extant 3D dust map. The exact mechanism that produces such coherent motions remains unclear, while the observed radial expansion and dust shell suggest that massive stellar feedback could have influenced the star formation history of these groups.
Natalie Grasser, Sebastian Ratzenböck, João Alves, Josefa Großschedl, Stefan Meingast, Catherine Zucker, Alvaro Hacar, Charles Lada, Alyssa Goodman, Marco Lombardi, John C. Forbes, Immanuel M. Bomze, and Torsten Möller. 2021. “The $$\rho$$ Oph region revisited with Gaia EDR3.” arXiv, 2101, 12200.Abstract
Context. Young and embedded stellar populations are important probes of the star formation process. Paradoxically, we have a better census of nearby embedded young populations than the slightly more evolved optically visible young populations. The high accuracy measurements and all-sky coverage of Gaia data are about to change this situation. Aims. This work aims to construct the most complete sample to date of YSOs in the ρ Oph region. Methods. We compile a catalog of 761 Ophiuchus YSOs from the literature and crossmatch it with the Gaia EDR3, Gaia-ESO and APOGEE-2 surveys. We apply a multivariate classification algorithm to this catalog to identify new, co-moving population candidates. Results. We find 173 new YSO candidates in the Gaia EDR3 catalog belonging to the ρ Oph region. The new sources appear to be mainly Class III M-stars and substellar objects and are less extincted than the known members. We find 19 previously unknown sources with disks. The analysis of the proper motion distribution of the entire sample reveals a well-defined bimodality, implying two distinct populations sharing a similar 3D volume. The first population comprises young stars' clusters around the ρ Ophiuchi star and the main Ophiuchus clouds (L1688, L1689, L1709). In contrast, the second population is older (∼ 10 Myr), dispersed, has a distinct proper motion, and is likely part of the Upper-Sco group. The two populations are moving away from each other at about 3.8 km/s, and will no longer overlap in about 4 Myr. Finally, we flag 47 sources in the literature as impostors, which are sources that exhibit large deviations from the average distance and proper motion properties of the ρ Oph population. Our results show the importance of accurate 3D space and motion information for improved stellar population analysis.