Hunting pre-stellar cores with APEX: overview
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| author | Caselli, P. Spezzano, S. Redaelli, E. Harju, J. Arzoumanian, D. Lique, F. Sipilä, O. Pineda, J. E. Wirström, E. Wyrowski, F. Belloche, A. |
| author_facet | Caselli, P. Spezzano, S. Redaelli, E. Harju, J. Arzoumanian, D. Lique, F. Sipilä, O. Pineda, J. E. Wirström, E. Wyrowski, F. Belloche, A. |
| contents | [Abridged] $Context.$ Pre-stellar cores are centrally concentrated starless cores on the verge of star formation and they represent the initial conditions for star and planet formation. Pre-stellar cores host an active organic chemistry and isotopic fractionation, kept stored into thick icy mantles, which can be inherited by the future protoplanetary disks and planetesimals. So far, only a few have been studied in detail, with special attention being paid to L1544 in the Taurus Molecular Cloud. $Aims.$ The aim is to identify nearby ($<$200 pc) pre-stellar cores in an unbiased way, to build a sample that can then be studied in detail. $Methods.$ We first used the Herschel Gould Belt Survey archival data, selecting all those starless cores with central H$_2$ number densities higher than or equal to 3$\times$10$^5$ cm$^{-3}$, the density of L1544 within the Herschel beam. The selected 40 (out of 1746) cores have then been observed in N$_2$H$^+$(3-2) and N$_2$D$^+$(4-3) using the APEX antenna. $Results.$ A total of 17 bona-fide (i.e., with a deuterium fraction larger than 10%) pre-stellar cores have been identified. Other 16 objects can also be considered pre-stellar, as they are dynamically evolved starless cores, but their deuterium fraction is relatively low ($<$10%). The remaining 7 objects have been found associated with very young stellar objects. $Conclusions.$ Dust continuum emission, together with spectroscopic observations of N$_2$H$^+$(3-2) and N$_2$D$^+$(4-3), is a powerful tool to identify pre-stellar cores in molecular clouds. Detailed modeling of the physical structure of the objects is now required for reconstructing the chemical composition as a function of radius. This work has provided a statistically significant sample of 33 pre-stellar cores, a crucial step in the understanding of the process of star and planet formation. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_00864 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Hunting pre-stellar cores with APEX: overview Caselli, P. Spezzano, S. Redaelli, E. Harju, J. Arzoumanian, D. Lique, F. Sipilä, O. Pineda, J. E. Wirström, E. Wyrowski, F. Belloche, A. Astrophysics of Galaxies Solar and Stellar Astrophysics [Abridged] $Context.$ Pre-stellar cores are centrally concentrated starless cores on the verge of star formation and they represent the initial conditions for star and planet formation. Pre-stellar cores host an active organic chemistry and isotopic fractionation, kept stored into thick icy mantles, which can be inherited by the future protoplanetary disks and planetesimals. So far, only a few have been studied in detail, with special attention being paid to L1544 in the Taurus Molecular Cloud. $Aims.$ The aim is to identify nearby ($<$200 pc) pre-stellar cores in an unbiased way, to build a sample that can then be studied in detail. $Methods.$ We first used the Herschel Gould Belt Survey archival data, selecting all those starless cores with central H$_2$ number densities higher than or equal to 3$\times$10$^5$ cm$^{-3}$, the density of L1544 within the Herschel beam. The selected 40 (out of 1746) cores have then been observed in N$_2$H$^+$(3-2) and N$_2$D$^+$(4-3) using the APEX antenna. $Results.$ A total of 17 bona-fide (i.e., with a deuterium fraction larger than 10%) pre-stellar cores have been identified. Other 16 objects can also be considered pre-stellar, as they are dynamically evolved starless cores, but their deuterium fraction is relatively low ($<$10%). The remaining 7 objects have been found associated with very young stellar objects. $Conclusions.$ Dust continuum emission, together with spectroscopic observations of N$_2$H$^+$(3-2) and N$_2$D$^+$(4-3), is a powerful tool to identify pre-stellar cores in molecular clouds. Detailed modeling of the physical structure of the objects is now required for reconstructing the chemical composition as a function of radius. This work has provided a statistically significant sample of 33 pre-stellar cores, a crucial step in the understanding of the process of star and planet formation. |
| title | Hunting pre-stellar cores with APEX: overview |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies Solar and Stellar Astrophysics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.00864 |