Submillimeter inteferometric studies of the fragmentation of high mass star forming regions

PI和他的团队研究了高质量恒星形成区域中的冷分子物质是如何从最早的分裂和恒星前阶段发展到大质量恒星周围的电离区域的。最近对银道面红外和毫米波波段的调查，使我们能够对高质量恒星形成区域进行公正的识别和分类，包括可能是大质量恒星前身的红外暗致密分子团块。一项大型系统高分辨率研究将在三年内对大约40个高质量恒星形成区域进行大质量恒星形成最年轻阶段的研究。观测使用莫纳克亚山上的三个亚毫米望远镜，亚毫米阵列（SMA），詹姆斯克拉克麦克斯韦望远镜（JCMT）和加州理工学院亚毫米天文台（CSO），通过分配给夏威夷大学的时间份额来完成。这项工作为美国国家科学基金会资助的阿塔卡马大型毫米波阵列（ALMA）的早期科学观测奠定了基础。由于胚胎分子团如何分解成恒星形成核心的机制以及大质量恒星形成的过程尚未得到很好的理解，这些结果将对大型星团和大质量恒星形成的竞争性理论模型施加限制。该项目对星系演化和大质量恒星环境下太阳系起源模型的研究具有更广泛的意义。本项目有助于培养一名（亚）毫米天文学和干涉测量的观测和分析技术研究生至博士水平。来自夏威夷大学希洛分校（University of Hawaii at Hilo）的一名天文学专业本科生也将参与该项目，协助莫纳克亚山的观测运行，并学习数据简化和分析技术。

The PI and his team study how cold molecular material in high-mass star forming regions develops from the earliest, fragmentation and pre-stellar phases to an ionized region around massive stars. The recent surveys of the Galactic Plane at infrared and millimeter wavelengths allow an unbiased identification and classification of high mass star forming regions, including the infrared-dark, compact molecular clumps that are likely precursors to massive stars.A large systematic high-resolution study of the youngest phases of massive star formation will be done for about 40 high mass star forming regions over three years. Observations are done using the three submillimeter telescopes on Mauna Kea, the Submillimeter Array (SMA), James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), and Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO), through the share of time apportioned to the University of Hawaii. This work lays a foundation for early science observations with the NSF-funded Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA). The results will place constraints on competing theoretical models for the formation of large stellar clusters and high-mass stars as the mechanisms how embryonic molecular clumps break down into star-forming cores, and the processes by which massive stars build up, are not yet well understood.This project has broader implications for studies of galaxy evolution and models of Solar System origins in a massive star environment. This project contributes to the education and training of a graduate student to the PhD level in observational and analytical techniques of (sub-)millimeter astronomy and interferometry . An undergraduate astronomy major from the minority-serving University of Hawaii at Hilo will also participate in the project by assisting on Mauna Kea observing runs, and learn about data reduction and analysis techniques.