https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202225700037
Galactic star formation with NIKA2 (GASTON): Filament convergence and its link to star formation
1 School of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, Queen’s Buildings, The Parade, Cardiff, CF24 3AA, UK
2 LLR (Laboratoire Leprince-Ringuet), CNRS, École Polytechnique, Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Palaiseau, France
3 AIM, CEA, CNRS, Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 91191 Gifsur-Yvette, France
4 Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, LPSC-IN2P3, 53, avenue des Martyrs, 38000 Grenoble, France
5 Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), CNRS, Université Paris Sud, Orsay, France
6 Institut Néel, CNRS, Université Grenoble Alpes, France
7 Institut de RadioAstronomie Millimétrique (IRAM), Grenoble, France
8 Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, CNES, LAM (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille), Marseille, France
9 Dipartimento di Fisica, Sapienza Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, I-00185 Roma, Italy
10 Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IPAG, 38000 Grenoble, France
11 Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA), Torrejón de Ardoz, 28850 Madrid, Spain
12 Instituto de Radioastronomía Milimétrica (IRAM), Granada, Spain
13 LERMA, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, UPMC, 75014 Paris, France
14 School of Earth and Space Exploration and Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
15 Univ. Toulouse, CNRS, IRAP, 9 Av. du colonel Roche, BP 44346, 31028, Toulouse, France
16 Laboratoire de Physique de l’École Normale Supérieure, ENS, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Université de Paris, 75005 Paris, France
17 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, 209 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA
18 Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, Sorbonne Université, CNRS (UMR7095), 75014 Paris, France
19 Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
20 Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
* e-mail: Nicolas.Peretto@astro.cf.ac.uk
Published online: 17 January 2022
In the past decade filaments have been recognised as a major structural element of the interstellar medium, the densest of these filaments hosting the formation of most stars. In some star-forming molecular clouds converging networks of filaments, also known as hub filament systems, can be found. These hubs are believed to be preferentially associated to massive star formation. As of today, there are no metrics that allow the systematic quantification of a filament network convergence. Here, we used the IRAM 30m NIKA2 observations of the Galactic plane from the GASTON large programme to systematically identify filaments and produce a filament convergence parameter map. We use such a map to show that: i. hub filaments represent a small fraction of the global filament population; ii. hubs host, in proportion, more massive and more luminous compact sources that non-hubs; iii. hub-hosting clumps are more evolved that non-hubs; iv. no discontinuities are observed in the properties of compact sources as a function of convergence parameter. We propose that the rapid global collapse of clumps is responsible for (re)organising filament networks into hubs and, in parallel, enhancing the mass growth of compact sources.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2022
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
