Astrophysics with the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey

这个项目的动机是了解与高质量恒星形成区相关的致密分子气体的银河系分布，并描述致密分子团的原恒星和原星团的演化。这项工作是对博洛卡姆星系平面勘测(BGPS)发现的大约8000个源的光谱跟踪。要确定这些区域的基本参数(如大小、质量和亮度)，需要知道准确的距离。在这里，用海因里希·赫兹望远镜对整个BGPS星表样本同时观测的气体分子HCO和N2H组成的光谱测量来测量运动学距离。运动学距离是使用新开发的概率密度函数方法得出的，该方法能够表征团块质量函数并将团块映射到银河系平面上。通过将现有的中红外、远红外、毫米和射电连续谱测量的信息与对致密分子气体的新观测相结合，将探索BGPS团团的演化状态。为了更好地了解银河系中高质量恒星形成区的形成、演化和银河系分布，需要这些数据。得出的速度、运动距离以及密集分子团属性和演化信息的数据库将向科学界发布，并加强BGPS档案。该数据库将有助于在未来十年规划阿塔卡马大型毫米波阵列(ALMA)和扩展超大型阵列(EVLA)的有效后续计划。该项目得到了研究生和本科生的大力参与，将有助于培养下一代天文学家。

The motivation for this project is to understand the Galactic distribution of dense molecular gas associated with high-mass star formation regions and to characterize the protostellar and proto-cluster evolution of dense molecular clumps. This work is a spectroscopic follow up of about 8000 sources discovered with the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey (BGPS). The determination of fundamental parameters (such as sizes, masses, and luminosities), of these regions requires the knowledge of accurate distances. Here kinematic distances are measured with a spectroscopic survey comprised of simultaneous observations of the gas molecules HCO+ and N2H+ with the Heinrich Hertz Telescope toward the entire BGPS catalog sample. The kinematic distances are derived using a newly developed probability density function methodology which enables the characterization of the clump mass function and the mapping of the clumps onto the plane of the Galaxy. The evolutionary states of BGPS clumps will be probed by combining information from extant mid-infrared, far-infrared, millimeter, and radio continuum surveys with new observations of dense molecular gas. These data are needed to better understand the formation, evolution, and Galactic distribution of high-mass star forming regions in the Milky Way.The derived velocities, kinematic distances, and a database of dense molecular clump properties and evolutionary information will be released to the scientific community and enhancing the BGPS archive. The database will be useful for planning efficient follow-up programs with Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) and the Expanded Very Large Array (eVLA) in the coming decade. This project has a strong participation of graduate and undergraduate students and will help to train the next generation of astronomers.