Gómez, GC, Walsh, C orcid.org/0000-0001-6078-786X and Palau, A (2022) Different molecular filament widths as tracers of accretion onto filaments. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. ISSN 0035-8711
Abstract
We explore how dense filament widths, when measured using different molecular species, may change as a consequence of gas accretion toward the filament. As a gas parcel falls into the filament, it will experience different density, temperature, and extinction values. The rate at which this environment changes will affect differently the abundance of different molecules. So, a molecule that forms quickly will better reflect the local physical conditions a gas parcel experiences than a slower-forming molecule. Since these differences depend on how the respective timescales compare, the different molecular distributions should reflect how rapidly the environment changes, i.e., the accretion rate toward the filament. We find that the filament widths measured from time-dependent abundances for C2H, CO, CN, CS, and C3H2, are the most sensitive to this effect. This is because these molecules are the ones presenting also the wider filament widths. On the contrary, molecules such as N2H+, NH3, H2CO, HNC and CH3OH are not so sensitive to accretion and present the narrowest filament widths. We propose that ratios of filament widths for different tracers could be a useful tool to estimate the accretion rate onto the filament.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. This is an author produced version of an article published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | ISM: clouds, ISM: kinematics and dynamics, ISM: molecules, astrochemistry |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Physics and Astronomy (Leeds) > Astrophysics (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number STFC (Science and Technology Facilities Council) ST/T000287/1 MRC (Medical Research Council) MR/T040726/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 27 Apr 2022 11:16 |
Last Modified: | 27 Apr 2022 11:16 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/mnras/stac912 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:186066 |