Absence of High-mass Prestellar Cores in the Orion Giant Molecular Cloud

Kavli Affiliate: Ke Wang

| First 5 Authors: Wenyu Jiao, Ke Wang, Fengwei Xu, ,

| Summary:

A fundamental difference between "core-fed" and "clump-fed" star formation
theories lies in the existence or absence of high-mass cores at the prestellar
stage. However, only a handful of such cores have been observed. Here,
different than previous search in distributed star formation regions in the
Galactic plane, we search for high-mass prestellar cores in the Orion GMC, by
observing the 7 most massive starless cores selected from previous deep
continuum surveys. We present ALMA ACA Band 6 and Band 7 continuum and line
observations toward the 7 cores, in which we identify 9 dense cores at both
bands. The derived maximum core mass is less than 11 Msun, based on different
dust temperatures. We find no high-mass prestellar cores in this sample,
aligning with the results of previous surveys, thereby challenging the
existence of such cores in Orion. Outside Orion, further detailed studies are
needed for remaining high-mass prestellar core candidates to confirm their
status as massive, starless cores.

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