Urquhart, JS, Koenig, C, Giannetti, A, Leurini, S, Moore, TJT, Eden, DJ, Pillai, T, Thompson, MA, Braiding, C, Burton, MG, Csengeri, T, Dempsey, JT, Figura, C, Froebrich, D, Menten, KM, Schuller, F, Smith, MD and Wyrowski, F (2017) ATLASGAL --- properties of a complete sample of Galactic clumps. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. ISSN 0035-8711

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Abstract

Abridged: ATLASGAL is an unbiased 870 micron submillimetre survey of the inner Galactic plane. It provides a large and systematic inventory of all massive, dense clumps in the Galaxy (>1000 Msun) and includes representative samples of all embedded stages of high-mass star formation. Here we present the first detailed census of the properties (velocities, distances, luminosities and masses) and spatial distribution of a complete sample of ~8000 dense clumps located in the Galactic disk. We derive highly reliable velocities and distances to ~97% of the sample and use mid- and far-infrared survey data to develop an evolutionary classification scheme that we apply to the whole sample. Comparing the evolutionary subsamples reveals trends for increasing dust temperatures, luminosities and line-widths as a function of evolution indicating that the feedback from the embedded proto-clusters is having a significant impact on the structure and dynamics of their natal clumps. We find 88\,per\,cent are already associated with star formation at some level. We also find the clump mass to be independent of evolution suggesting that the clumps form with the majority of their mass in-situ. We estimate the statistical lifetime of the quiescent stage to be ~5 x 10^4 yr for clump masses ~1000 Msun decreasing to ~1 x 10^4 yr for clump masses >10000 Msun. We find a strong correlation between the fraction of clumps associated with massive stars and peak column density. The fraction is initially small at low column densities but reaching 100\,per\,cent for column densities above 10^{23} cm^{-2}; there are no clumps with column density clumps above this value that are not already associated with massive star formation. All of the evidence is consistent with a dynamic view of star formation wherein the clumps form rapidly and are initially very unstable so that star formation quickly ensues.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2017 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	astro-ph.GA; astro-ph.GA
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy Q Science > QC Physics
Divisions:	Astrophysics Research Institute
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Related URLs:	http://arxiv.org/abs/1709.00392v1
Date Deposited:	07 Sep 2017 11:45
Last Modified:	04 Sep 2021 11:15
DOI or ID number:	10.1093/mnras/stx2258
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/7052

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