Authors

M. K. Dunham; E. Rosolowsky; N. J. Evans; C. J. Cyganowski; J. Aguirre; J. Bally; C. Battersby; E. T. Bradley; D. Dowell; M. Drosback; A. Ginsburg; J. Glenn; P. Harvey; M. Merello; W. Schlingman; Y. L. Shirley; G. S. Stringfellow; J. Walawender;J. P. Williams

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Astrophys. J.

Keywords

dust, extinction; ISM: clouds; ISM: individual objects (Gem OB1); radio; lines: ISM; stars: formation; INFRARED DARK CLOUDS; DENSE CORES; MILKY-WAY; WATER MASERS; H2O MASERS; PROTOSTELLAR CANDIDATES; INITIAL CONDITIONS; I-GEMINORUM; AMMONIA; PERSEUS; Astronomy & Astrophysics

Abstract

We present the 1.1 mm Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS) observations of the Gemini OB1 molecular cloud complex, and targeted NH3 observations of the BGPS sources. When paired with molecular spectroscopy of a dense gas tracer, millimeter observations yield physical properties such as masses, radii, mean densities, kinetic temperatures, and line widths. We detect 34 distinct BGPS sources above 5 sigma = 0.37 Jy beam(-1) with corresponding 5s detections in the NH3(1,1) transition. Eight of the objects show water maser emission (20%). We find a mean millimeter source FWHM of 1.12 pc and a mean gas kinetic temperature of 20 K for the sample of 34 BGPS sources with detections in the NH3(1,1) line. The observed NH3 line widths are dominated by non-thermal motions, typically found to be a few times the thermal sound speed expected for the derived kinetic temperature. We calculate the mass for each source from the millimeter flux assuming the sources are isothermal and find a mean isothermal mass within a 120 '' aperture of 230 +/- 180 M-circle dot. We find a total mass of 8400 M-circle dot for all BGPS sources in the Gemini OB1 molecular cloud, representing 6.5% of the cloud mass. By comparing the millimeter isothermal mass to the virial mass calculated from the NH3 line widths within a radius equal to the millimeter source size, we find a mean virial parameter (M-vir/M-iso) of 1.0 +/- 0.9 for the sample. We find mean values for the distributions of column densities of 1.0 x 10(22) cm(-2) for H-2, and 3.0 x 10(14) cm(-2) for NH3, giving a mean NH3 abundance of 3.0 x 10(-8) relative to H-2. We find volume-averaged densities on the order of 10(3)-10(4) cm(-3). The sizes and densities suggest that in the Gem OB1 region the BGPS is detecting the clumps from which stellar clusters form, rather than smaller, higher density cores where single stars or small multiple systems form.

Journal Title

Astrophysical Journal

Volume

717

Issue/Number

2

Publication Date

1-1-2010

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

1157

Last Page

1180

WOS Identifier

WOS:000280650800044

ISSN

0004-637X

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