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How Supernova Remnant (SNR) shocks impact nearby molecular clouds is still poorly observationally constrained. It is unclear if SNRs can positively or negatively affect clouds star formation potential. We have studied the dense gas morphology and kinematics toward the Infrared Dark Cloud (IRDC) G034.77-00.55, shock-interacting with the SNR W44, to identify evidence of early stage star formation induced by the shock. We have used high-angular resolution N2H+(1-0) images across G034.77-00.55, obtained with ALMA. N2H+ is a well known tracer of dense and cold material, optimal to identify gas with the highest potential to harbour star formation. The N2H+ emission is distributed into two elongated structures, one toward the dense ridge at the edge of the source and one toward the inner cloud. Both elongations are spatially associated with well-defined mass-surface density features. The velocities of the gas in the two structures i.e., 38-41 km s-1 and 41-43 km s-1 are consistent with the lowest velocities of the J- and C-type parts of the SNR-driven shock, respectively. A third velocity component is present at 43-45.5 km s-1. The dense gas shows a fragmented morphology with core-like fragments of scales consistent with the Jeans lengths, masses $\sim$1-20 M$_{\odot}$, densities (n(H$_2$)$\geq$10$^5$ cm$^{-3}$) sufficient to host star formation in free-fall time scales (few 10$^4$ yr) and with virial parameters that hint toward possible collapse. The W44 driven shock may have swept up the encountered material which is now seen as a dense ridge, almost detached from the main cloud, and an elongation within the inner cloud, well constrained in both N2H+ emission and mass surface density. This shock compressed material may have then fragmented into cores that are either in a starless or pre-stellar stage. Additional observations are needed to confirm this scenario and the nature of the cores., Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

The Milky Way's Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) differs dramatically from our local solar neighbourhood, both in the extreme interstellar medium conditions it exhibits (e.g. high gas, stellar, and feedback density) and in the strong dynamics at play (e.g. due to shear and gas influx along the bar). Consequently, it is likely that there are large-scale physical structures within the CMZ that cannot form elsewhere in the Milky Way. In this paper, we present new results from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) large programme ACES (ALMA CMZ Exploration Survey) and conduct a multi-wavelength and kinematic analysis to determine the origin of the M0.8$-$0.2 ring, a molecular cloud with a distinct ring-like morphology. We estimate the projected inner and outer radii of the M0.8$-$0.2 ring to be 79" and 154", respectively (3.1 pc and 6.1 pc at an assumed Galactic Centre distance of 8.2 kpc) and calculate a mean gas density $> 10^{4}$ cm$^{-3}$, a mass of $\sim$ $10^6$ M$_\odot$, and an expansion speed of $\sim$ 20 km s$^{-1}$, resulting in a high estimated kinetic energy ($> 10^{51}$ erg) and momentum ($> 10^7$ M$_\odot$ km s$^{-1}$). We discuss several possible causes for the existence and expansion of the structure, including stellar feedback and large-scale dynamics. We propose that the most likely cause of the M0.8$-$0.2 ring is a single high-energy hypernova explosion. To viably explain the observed morphology and kinematics, such an explosion would need to have taken place inside a dense, very massive molecular cloud, the remnants of which we now see as the M0.8$-$0.2 ring. In this case, the structure provides an extreme example of how supernovae can affect molecular clouds., Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, and 2 tables. Published in Astronomy & Astrophysics

We present the initial data for the ($J = 3 \to 2$) transition of $^{13}$CO obtained from the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) of the Milky Way as part of the CO Heterodyne Inner Milky Way Plane Survey 2 (CHIMPS2). Covering $359^\circ \leq l \leq 1^\circ$ and $|b| \leq 0.5^\circ$ with an angular resolution of 19 arcsec, velocity resolution of 1 km s$^{-1}$, and rms $T_A^* = 0.59$ K at these resolutions, our observations unveil the complex structure of the CMZ molecular gas in improved detail. Complemented by the $^{12}$CO CHIMPS2 data, we estimate a median optical depth of $\tau_{13} = 0.087$. The preliminary analysis yields a median $^{13}$CO column density range equal to $N(^{13}\text{CO})= 2$--$5 \times 10^{18}$ cm$^{-2}$, median H$_2$ column density equal to $N(\text{H}_2)= 4 \times 10^{22}$ cm$^{-2}$ to $1 \times 10^{23}$ cm$^{-2}$. We derive $N(\text{H}_2)$-based total mass estimates of $M(\text{H}_2)= 2$--$6 \times 10^7\, M_{\odot}$, in agreement with previous studies. We analyze the relationship between the integrated intensity of $^{13}$CO and the surface density of compact sources identified by Herschel Hi-GAL, and find that younger Hi-GAL sources detected at 500 $\mu$m but not at 70 $\mu$m follow the dense gas of the CMZ more closely than those that are bright at 70 $\mu$m. The latter, actively star-forming sources, appear to be more associated with material in the foreground spiral arms., Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures

We present deep, sub-arcsecond ($\sim$2000 AU) resolution ALMA 0.82 mm observations of the former high-mass prestellar core candidate G11.92-0.61 MM2, recently shown to be an $\sim$500 AU-separation protobinary. Our observations show that G11.92-0.61 MM2, located in the G11.92-0.61 protocluster, lies on a filamentary structure traced by 0.82 mm continuum and N$_2$H$^+$(4-3) emission. The N$_2$H$^+$(4-3) spectra are multi-peaked, indicative of multiple velocity components along the line of sight. To analyse the gas kinematics, we performed pixel-by-pixel Gaussian decomposition of the N$_2$H$^+$ spectra using SCOUSEPY and hierarchical clustering of the extracted velocity components using ACORNS. Seventy velocity- and position-coherent clusters (called "trees") are identified in the N$_2$H$^+$-emitting gas, with the 8 largest trees accounting for >60% of the fitted velocity components. The primary tree, with $\sim$20% of the fitted velocity components, displays a roughly north-south velocity gradient along the filamentary structure traced by the 0.82 mm continuum. Analysing a $\sim$0.17 pc-long substructure, we interpret its velocity gradient of $\sim$10.5 km s$^{-1}$pc$^{-1}$ as tracing filamentary accretion towards MM2 and estimate a mass inflow rate of $\sim$1.8$\times10^{-4}$ to 1.2$\times10^{-3}$ M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$. Based on the recent detection of a bipolar molecular outflow associated with MM2, accretion onto the protobinary is ongoing, likely fed by the larger-scale filamentary accretion flows. If 50% of the filamentary inflow reaches the protostars, each member of the protobinary would attain a mass of 8 M$_\odot$ within $\sim1.6\times$10$^5$ yr, comparable to the combined timescale of the 70 $\mu$m- and MIR-weak phases derived for ATLASGAL-TOP100 massive clumps using chemical clocks., Comment: 21 pages, 15 figures, 2 tables, Accepted for publication in MNRAS

The interstellar medium in the Milky Way's Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) is known to be strongly magnetised, but its large-scale morphology and impact on the gas dynamics are not well understood. We explore the impact and properties of magnetic fields in the CMZ using three-dimensional non-self gravitating magnetohydrodynamical simulations of gas flow in an external Milky Way barred potential. We find that: (1) The magnetic field is conveniently decomposed into a regular time-averaged component and an irregular turbulent component. The regular component aligns well with the velocity vectors of the gas everywhere, including within the bar lanes. (2) The field geometry transitions from parallel to the Galactic plane near $z=0$ to poloidal away from the plane. (3) The magneto-rotational instability (MRI) causes an in-plane inflow of matter from the CMZ gas ring towards the central few parsecs of $0.01-0.1$ M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$ that is absent in the unmagnetised simulations. However, the magnetic fields have no significant effect on the larger-scale bar-driven inflow that brings the gas from the Galactic disc into the CMZ. (4) A combination of bar inflow and MRI-driven turbulence can sustain a turbulent vertical velocity dispersion of $\sigma_z \simeq 5$ km s$^{-1}$ on scales of $20$ pc in the CMZ ring. The MRI alone sustains a velocity dispersion of $\sigma_z \simeq 3$ km s$^{-1}$. Both these numbers are lower than the observed velocity dispersion of gas in the CMZ, suggesting that other processes such as stellar feedback are necessary to explain the observations. (5) Dynamo action driven by differential rotation and the MRI amplifies the magnetic fields in the CMZ ring until they saturate at a value that scales with the average local density as $B \simeq 102 (n/10^3 cm^{-3})^{0.33}$ $\mu$G. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results within the observational context in the CMZ.

Supernova remnants (SNRs) may regulate star formation in galaxies. For example, SNR-driven shocks may form new molecular gas or compress pre-existing clouds and trigger the formation of new stars. To test this scenario, we measure the deuteration of $N_2H^+$, $D_{frac}^{N_2H^+}$, a well-studied tracer of pre-stellar cores, across the Infrared Dark Cloud (IRDC) G034.77-00.55, known to be experiencing a shock interaction with the SNR W44. We use N$_2$H$^+$ and N$_2$D$^+$ J=1-0 single pointing observations obtained with the 30m antenna at the Instituto de Radioastronomia Millimetrica to infer $D_{frac}^{N_2H^+}$ toward five positions across the cloud, namely a massive core, different regions across the shock front, a dense clump and ambient gas. We find $D_{frac}^{N_2H^+}$ in the range 0.03-0.1, several orders of magnitude larger than the cosmic D/H ratio ($\sim$10$^{-5}$). Across the shock front, $D_{frac}^{N_2H^+}$ is enhanced by more than a factor of 2 ($D_{frac}^{N_2H^+}\sim$0.05-0.07) with respect to the ambient gas ($\leq$0.03) and similar to that measured generally in pre-stellar cores. Indeed, in the massive core and dense clump regions of this IRDC we measure $D_{frac}^{N_2H^+}$}$\sim$0.1. We find enhanced deuteration of $N_2H^+$ across the region of the shock, at a level that is enhanced with respect to regions of unperturbed gas. It is possible that this has been induced by shock compression, which would then be indirect evidence that the shock is triggering conditions for future star formation. However, since unperturbed dense regions also show elevated levels of deuteration, further, higher-resolution studies are needed to better understand the structure and kinematics of the deuterated material in the shock region, e.g., if it still in relatively diffuse form or already organised in a population of low-mass pre-stellar cores., Comment: Accepted for publication on A&A; 8 pages, 5 figures

Context: Core accretion models of massive star formation require the existence of massive, starless cores within molecular clouds. Yet, only a small number of candidates for such truly massive, monolithic cores are currently known. Aims: Here we analyse a massive core in the well-studied infrared-dark cloud (IRDC) called the 'dragon cloud' (also known as G028.37+00.07 or 'Cloud C'). This core (C2c1) sits at the end of a chain of a roughly equally spaced actively star-forming cores near the centre of the IRDC. Methods: We present new high-angular resolution 1 mm ALMA dust continuum and molecular line observations of the massive core. Results: The high-angular resolution observations show that this region fragments into two cores C2c1a and C2c1b, which retain significant background-subtracted masses of 23 Msun and 2 Msun (31 Msun and 6 Msun without background subtraction), respectively. The cores do not appear to fragment further on the scales of our highest angular resolution images (0.200 arcsec, 0.005 pc ~ 1000 AU). We find that these cores are very dense (nH2 > 10^6 cm-3) and have only trans-sonic non-thermal motions (Ms ~ 1). Together the mass, density and internal motions imply a virial parameter of < 1, which suggests the cores are gravitationally unstable, unless supported by strong magnetic fields with strengths of ~ 1 - 10 mG. From CO line observations, we find that there is tentative evidence for a weak molecular outflow towards the lower-mass core, and yet the more massive core remains devoid of any star formation indicators. Conclusions: We present evidence for the existence of a massive, pre-stellar core, which has implications for theories of massive star formation. This source warrants follow-up higher-angular-resolution observations to further assess its monolithic and pre-stellar nature., Comment: 8+4 pages, 4+2 Figures, 2 Tables, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

A timely and long-term programme of kaon decay measurements at a new level of precision is presented, leveraging the capabilities of the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS). The proposed programme is firmly anchored on the experience built up studying kaon decays at the SPS over the past four decades, and includes rare processes, CP violation, dark sectors, symmetry tests and other tests of the Standard Model. The experimental programme is based on a staged approach involving experiments with charged and neutral kaon beams, as well as operation in beam-dump mode. The various phases will rely on a common infrastructure and set of detectors., Comment: Letter of Intent submitted to CERN SPSC. Address all correspondence to hike-eb@cern.ch

Knowledge of the three-dimensional structure of Galactic molecular clouds is important for understanding how clouds are affected by processes such as turbulence and magnetic fields and how this structure effects star formation within them. Great progress has been made in this field with the arrival of the Gaia mission, which provides accurate distances to $\sim10^{9}$ stars. Combining these distances with extinctions inferred from optical-IR, we recover the three-dimensional structure of 16 Galactic molecular cloud complexes at $\sim1$pc resolution using our novel three-dimensional dust mapping algorithm \texttt{Dustribution}. Using \texttt{astrodendro} we derive a catalogue of physical parameters for each complex. We recover structures with aspect ratios between 1 and 11, i.e.\ everything from near-spherical to very elongated shapes. We find a large variation in cloud environments that is not apparent when studying them in two-dimensions. For example, the nearby California and Orion A clouds look similar on-sky, but we find California to be more sheet-like, and massive, which could explain their different star-formation rates. In Carina, our most distant complex, we observe evidence for dust sputtering, which explains its measured low dust mass. By calculating the total mass of these individual clouds, we demonstrate that it is necessary to define cloud boundaries in three-dimensions in order to obtain an accurate mass; simply integrating the extinction overestimates masses. We find that Larson's relationship on mass vs radius holds true whether you assume a spherical shape for the cloud or take their true extents., Comment: accepted for publication by MNRAS, 23 pages, 9 figures, 3 tables

We report on the discovery of linear filaments observed in CO(1-0) emission for a $\sim2'$ field of view toward the Sgr E star forming region centered at (l,b)=(358.720$^\circ$, 0.011$^\circ$). The Sgr E region is thought to be at the turbulent intersection of the ''far dust lane'' associated with the Galactic bar and the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ). This region is subject to strong accelerations which are generally thought to inhibit star formation, yet Sgr E contains a large number of HII regions. We present $^{12}$CO(1-0), $^{13}$CO(1-0), and C$^{18}$O(1-0) spectral line observations from ALMA and provide measurements of the physical and kinematic properties for two of the brightest filaments. These filaments have widths (FWHM) of $\sim0.1$ pc and are oriented nearly parallel to the Galactic plane, with angles from the Galactic plane of $\sim2^\circ$. The filaments are elongated, with lower limit aspect ratios of $\sim$5:1. For both filaments we detect two distinct velocity components that are separated by about 15 km s$^{-1}$. In the C$^{18}$O spectral line data with $\sim$0.09 pc spatial resolution, we find that these velocity components have relatively narrow ($\sim$1-2 km s$^{-1}$) FWHM linewidths when compared to other sources towards the Galactic center. The properties of these filaments suggest that the gas in the Sgr E complex is being ''stretched'' as it is rapidly accelerated by the gravitational field of the Galactic bar while falling towards the CMZ, a result that could provide insight into the extreme environment surrounding this region and the large-scale processes which fuel this environment., Comment: 20 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

Supernova remnants (SNRs) contribute to regulate the star formation efficiency and evolution of galaxies. As they expand into the interstellar medium (ISM), they transfer vast amounts of energy and momentum that displace, compress and heat the surrounding material. Despite the extensive work in galaxy evolution models, it remains to be observationally validated to what extent the molecular ISM is affected by the interaction with SNRs. We use the first results of the ESO-ARO Public Spectroscopic Survey SHREC, to investigate the shock interaction between the SNR IC443 and the nearby molecular clump G. We use high sensitivity SiO(2-1) and H$^{13}$CO$^+$(1-0) maps obtained by SHREC together with SiO(1-0) observations obtained with the 40m telescope at the Yebes Observatory. We find that the bulk of the SiO emission is arising from the ongoing shock interaction between IC443 and clump G. The shocked gas shows a well ordered kinematic structure, with velocities blue-shifted with respect to the central velocity of the SNR, similar to what observed toward other SNR-cloud interaction sites. The shock compression enhances the molecular gas density, n(H$_2$), up to $>$10$^5$ cm$^{-3}$, a factor of >10 higher than the ambient gas density and similar to values required to ignite star formation. Finally, we estimate that up to 50\% of the momentum injected by IC443 is transferred to the interacting molecular material. Therefore the molecular ISM may represent an important momentum carrier in sites of SNR-cloud interactions., Comment: Accepted for Publication in MNRAS; 11 pages, 7 figures

We present an in-situ counted ion implantation experiment reducing the error on the ion number to 5 % enabling the fabrication of high-yield single photon emitter devices in wide bandgap semiconductors for quantum applications. Typical focused ion beam implantation relies on knowing the beam current and setting a pulse length of the ion pulse to define the number of ions implanted at each location, referred to as timed implantation in this paper. This process is dominated by Poisson statistics resulting in large errors for low number of implanted ions. Instead, we use in-situ detection to measure the number of ions arriving at the substrate resulting in a two-fold reduction in the error on the number of implanted ions used to generate a single optically active silicon vacancy (SiV) defect in diamond compared to timed implantation. Additionally, through post-implantation analysis, we can further reduce the error resulting in a seven-fold improvement compared to timed implantation, allowing us to better estimate the conversion yield of implanted Si to SiV. We detect SiV emitters by photoluminescence spectroscopy, determine the number of emitters per location and calculate the yield to be 2.98 + 0.21 / - 0.24 %. Candidates for single photon emitters are investigated further by Hanbury-Brown-Twiss interferometry confirming that 82 % of the locations exhibit single photon emission statistics. This counted ion implantation technique paves the way towards deterministic creation of SiV when ion counting is used in combination with methods that improve the activation yield of SiV., Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures

The atomic phase of the interstellar medium plays a key role in the formation process of molecular clouds. Due to the line-of-sight confusion in the Galactic plane that is associated with its ubiquity, atomic hydrogen emission has been challenging to study. Employing the high-angular resolution data from the THOR survey, we identify one of the largest, coherent, mostly atomic HI filaments in the Milky Way at the line-of-sight velocities around -54 km/s. The giant atomic filament "Maggie", with a total length of 1.2 kpc, is not detected in most other tracers, and does not show signs of active star formation. At a kinematic distance of 17 kpc, Maggie is situated below (by 500 pc) but parallel to the Galactic HI disk and is trailing the predicted location of the Outer Arm by 5-10 km/s in longitude-velocity space. The centroid velocity exhibits a smooth gradient of less than $\pm$3 km/s /10 pc and a coherent structure to within $\pm$6 km/s. The line widths of 10 km/s along the spine of the filament are dominated by non-thermal effects. After correcting for optical depth effects, the mass of Maggie's dense spine is estimated to be $7.2\times10^5\,M_{\odot}$. The mean number density of the filament is 4$\rm\,cm^{-3}$, which is best explained by the filament being a mix of cold and warm neutral gas. In contrast to molecular filaments, the turbulent Mach number and velocity structure function suggest that Maggie is driven by transonic to moderately supersonic velocities that are likely associated with the Galactic potential rather than being subject to the effects of self-gravity or stellar feedback. The column density PDF displays a log-normal shape around a mean of $N_{\rm HI} = 4.8\times 10^{20}\rm\,cm^{-2}$, thus reflecting the absence of dominating effects of gravitational contraction., Comment: 19 pages, 17 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

G0.253+0.016, commonly referred to as "the Brick" and located within the Central Molecular Zone, is one of the densest ($\approx10^{3-4}$ cm$^{-3}$) molecular clouds in the Galaxy to lack signatures of widespread star formation. We set out to constrain the origins of an arc-shaped molecular line emission feature located within the cloud. We determine that the arc, centred on $\{l_{0},b_{0}\}=\{0.248^{\circ}, 0.18^{\circ}\}$, has a radius of $1.3$ pc and kinematics indicative of the presence of a shell expanding at $5.2^{+2.7}_{-1.9}$ km s$^{-1}$. Extended radio continuum emission fills the arc cavity and recombination line emission peaks at a similar velocity to the arc, implying that the molecular and ionised gas are physically related. The inferred Lyman continuum photon rate is $N_{\rm LyC}=10^{46.0}-10^{47.9}$ photons s$^{-1}$, consistent with a star of spectral type B1-O8.5, corresponding to a mass of $\approx12-20$ M$_{\odot}$. We explore two scenarios for the origin of the arc: i) a partial shell swept up by the wind of an interloper high-mass star; ii) a partial shell swept up by stellar feedback resulting from in-situ star formation. We favour the latter scenario, finding reasonable (factor of a few) agreement between its morphology, dynamics, and energetics and those predicted for an expanding bubble driven by the wind from a high-mass star. The immediate implication is that G0.253+0.016 may not be as quiescent as is commonly accepted. We speculate that the cloud may have produced a $\lesssim10^{3}$ M$_{\odot}$ star cluster $\gtrsim0.4$ Myr ago, and demonstrate that the high-extinction and stellar crowding observed towards G0.253+0.016 may help to obscure such a star cluster from detection., Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS (October 15, 2021)

Quantum Diamond Microscope (QDM) magnetic field imaging is an emerging interrogation and diagnostic technique for integrated circuits (ICs). To date, the ICs measured with a QDM were either too complex for us to predict the expected magnetic fields and benchmark the QDM performance, or were too simple to be relevant to the IC community. In this paper, we establish a 555 timer IC as a "model system" to optimize QDM measurement implementation, benchmark performance, and assess IC device functionality. To validate the magnetic field images taken with a QDM, we used a SPICE electronic circuit simulator and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to model the magnetic fields from the 555 die for two functional states. We compare the advantages and the results of three IC-diamond measurement methods, confirm that the measured and simulated magnetic images are consistent, identify the magnetic signatures of current paths within the device, and discuss using this model system to advance QDM magnetic imaging as an IC diagnostic tool., Comment: 12 pages main text (8 figures), 4 pages supplementary information (5 figures)

We identify stellar structures in the PHANGS sample of 74 nearby galaxies and construct morphological masks of sub-galactic environments based on Spitzer 3.6 micron images. At the simplest level, we distinguish centres, bars, spiral arms, interarm and discs without strong spirals. Slightly more sophisticated masks include rings and lenses, publicly released but not explicitly used in this paper. We examine trends using PHANGS-ALMA CO(2-1) intensity maps and tracers of star formation. The interarm regions and discs without strong spirals dominate in area, whereas molecular gas and star formation are quite evenly distributed among the five basic environments. We reproduce the molecular Kennicutt-Schmidt relation with a slope compatible with unity within the uncertainties, without significant slope differences among environments. In contrast to early studies, we find that bars are not always deserts devoid of gas and star formation, but instead they show large diversity. Similarly, spiral arms do not account for most of the gas and star formation in disc galaxies, and they do not have shorter depletion times than the interarm regions. Spiral arms accumulate gas and star formation, without systematically boosting the star formation efficiency. Centres harbour remarkably high surface densities and on average shorter depletion times than other environments. Centres of barred galaxies show higher surface densities and wider distributions compared to the outer disc; yet, depletion times are similar to unbarred galaxies, suggesting highly intermittent periods of star formation when bars episodically drive gas inflow, without enhancing the central star formation efficiency permanently. In conclusion, we provide quantitative evidence that stellar structures in galaxies strongly affect the organisation of molecular gas and star formation, but their impact on star formation efficiency is more subtle., Comment: 28 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

We present new 3 mm observations of the ionized gas toward the nuclear starburst in the nearby (D ~ 3.5 Mpc) galaxy NGC 253. With ALMA, we detect emission from the H40-alpha and He40-alpha lines in the central 200 pc of this galaxy on spatial scales of ~4 pc. The recombination line emission primarily originates from a population of approximately a dozen embedded super star clusters in the early stages of formation. We find that emission from these clusters is characterized by electron temperatures ranging from 7000-10000 K and measure an average singly-ionized helium abundance = 0.25 +/- 0.06, both of which are consistent with values measured for HII regions in the center of the Milky Way. We also report the discovery of unusually broad-linewidth recombination line emission originating from seven of the embedded clusters. We suggest that these clusters contribute to the launching of the large-scale hot wind observed to emanate from the central starburst. Finally, we use the measured recombination line fluxes to improve the characterization of overall embedded cluster properties, including the distribution of cluster masses and the fractional contribution of the clustered star formation to the total starburst, which we estimate is at least 50%., Comment: ApJ Accepted. 20 pages, 8 figures

Infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) are potential hosts of the elusive early phases of high-mass star formation (HMSF). Here we conduct an in-depth analysis of the fragmentation properties of a sample of 10 IRDCs, which have been highlighted as some of the best candidates to study HMSF within the Milky Way. To do so, we have obtained a set of large mosaics covering these IRDCs with ALMA at band 3 (or 3mm). These observations have a high angular resolution (~3arcsec or ~0.05pc), and high continuum and spectral line sensitivity (~0.15mJy/beam and ~0.2K per 0.1km/s channel at the N2H+(1-0) transition). From the dust continuum emission, we identify 96 cores ranging from low- to high-mass (M = 3.4 to 50.9Msun) that are gravitationally bound (alpha_vir = 0.3 to 1.3) and which would require magnetic field strengths of B = 0.3 to 1.0mG to be in virial equilibrium. We combine these results with a homogenised catalogue of literature cores to recover the hierarchical structure within these clouds over four orders of magnitude in spatial scale (0.01pc to 10pc). Using supplementary observations at an even higher angular resolution, we find that the smallest fragments (<0.02pc) within this hierarchy do not currently have the mass and/or the density required to form high-mass stars. Nonetheless, the new ALMA observations presented in this paper have facilitated the identification of 19 (6 quiescent and 13 star-forming) cores that retain >16Msun without further fragmentation. These high-mass cores contain trans-sonic non-thermal motions, are kinematically sub-virial, and require moderate magnetic field strengths for support against collapse. The identification of these potential sites of high-mass star formation represents a key step in allowing us to test the predictions from high-mass star and cluster formation theories., Comment: 21(+6 in appendix) pages, 12(+3) figures, 3(+3) tables. Machine-readable versions of Table A1, A2 and A3 are available online. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

The 14N/15N ratio in molecules exhibits a large variation in star-forming regions, especially when measured from N2H+ isotopologues. However, there are only a few studies performed at high-angular resolution. We present the first interferometric survey of the 14N/15N ratio in N2H+ obtained with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array towards four infrared-dark clouds harbouring 3~mm continuum cores associated with different physical properties. We detect N15NH+ (1-0) in about 20-40% of the cores, depending on the host cloud. The 14N/15N values measured towards the millimeter continuum cores range from a minimum of 80 up to a maximum of 400. The spread of values is narrower than that found in any previous single-dish survey of high-mass star-forming regions, and than that obtained using the total power data only. This suggests that the 14N/15N ratio is on average higher in the diffuse gaseous envelope of the cores, and stresses the need for high-angular resolution maps to measure correctly the 14N/15N ratio in dense cores embedded in IRDCs. The average 14N/15N ratio of 210 is also lower than the interstellar value at the Galactocentric distance of the clouds (300-330), although the sensitivity of our observations does not allow us to unveil 14N/15N ratios higher than 400. No clear trend is found between the 14N/15N ratio and the core physical properties. We find only a tentative positive trend between 14N/15N and the H2 column density. However, firmer conclusions can be drawn only with higher sensitivity measurements., Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, 6 tables, 1 appendix, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Infrared Dark Clouds (IRDCs) are very dense and highly extincted regions that host the initial conditions of star and stellar cluster formation. It is crucial to study the kinematics and molecular content of IRDCs to test their formation mechanism and ultimately characterise these initial conditions. We have obtained high-sensitivity Silicon Monoxide, SiO(2-1), emission maps toward the six IRDCs, G018.82$-$00.28, G019.27+00.07, G028.53$-$00.25, G028.67+00.13, G038.95$-$00.47 and G053.11+00.05 (cloud A, B, D, E, I and J, respectively), using the 30-m antenna at the Instituto de Radioastronom\'{i}a Millim\'{e}trica (IRAM30m). We have investigated the SiO spatial distribution and kinematic structure across the six clouds to look for signatures of cloud-cloud collision events that may have formed the IRDCs and triggered star formation within them. Toward clouds A, B, D, I and J we detect spatially compact SiO emission with broad line profiles which are spatially coincident with massive cores. Toward the IRDCs A and I, we report an additional SiO component that shows narrow line profiles and that is widespread across quiescent regions. Finally, we do not detect any significant SiO emission toward cloud E. We suggest that the broad and compact SiO emission detected toward the clouds is likely associated with ongoing star formation activity within the IRDCs. However, the additional narrow and widespread SiO emission detected toward cloud A and I may have originated from the collision between the IRDCs and flows of molecular gas pushed toward the clouds by nearby HII regions., Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures

The latest generation of Galactic-plane surveys is enhancing our ability to study the effects of galactic environment upon the process of star formation. We present the first data from CO Heterodyne Inner Milky Way Plane Survey 2 (CHIMPS2). CHIMPS2 is a survey that will observe the Inner Galaxy, the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ), and a section of the Outer Galaxy in $^{12}$CO, $^{13}$CO, and C$^{18}$O $(J = 3\rightarrow2)$ emission with the Heterodyne Array Receiver Program on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT). The first CHIMPS2 data presented here are a first look towards the CMZ in $^{12}$CO J = 3$\rightarrow$2 and cover $-3^{\circ}\leq\,\ell\,\leq\,5^{\circ}$ and $\mid$b$\mid \leq 0.5^{\circ}$ with angular resolution of 15 arcsec, velocity resolution of 1 km s$^{-1}$, and rms $\Delta T_A ^\ast =$ 0.58 K at these resolutions. Such high-resolution observations of the CMZ will be a valuable data set for future studies, whilst complementing the existing Galactic Plane surveys, such as SEDIGISM, the Herschel infrared Galactic Plane Survey, and ATLASGAL. In this paper, we discuss the survey plan, the current observations and data, as well as presenting position-position maps of the region. The position-velocity maps detect foreground spiral arms in both absorption and emission., Comment: 18 pages, 14 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

The density structure of the interstellar medium (ISM) determines where stars form and release energy, momentum, and heavy elements, driving galaxy evolution. Density variations are seeded and amplified by gas motion, but the exact nature of this motion is unknown across spatial scale and galactic environment. Although dense star-forming gas likely emerges from a combination of instabilities, convergent flows, and turbulence, establishing the precise origin is challenging because it requires quantifying gas motion over many orders of magnitude in spatial scale. Here we measure the motion of molecular gas in the Milky Way and in nearby galaxy NGC 4321, assembling observations that span an unprecedented spatial dynamic range ($10^{-1}{-}10^3$ pc). We detect ubiquitous velocity fluctuations across all spatial scales and galactic environments. Statistical analysis of these fluctuations indicates how star-forming gas is assembled. We discover oscillatory gas flows with wavelengths ranging from $0.3{-}400$ pc. These flows are coupled to regularly-spaced density enhancements that likely form via gravitational instabilities. We also identify stochastic and scale-free velocity and density fluctuations, consistent with the structure generated in turbulent flows. Our results demonstrate that ISM structure cannot be considered in isolation. Instead, its formation and evolution is controlled by nested, interdependent flows of matter covering many orders of magnitude in spatial scale., Comment: Published in Nature Astronomy on July 6th 2020. This is the authors' version before final edits. Includes methods and supplementary information. Link to the NA publication: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-020-1126-z

Knowledge about the distribution of CO emission in the Milky Way is essential to understand the impact of Galactic environment on the formation and evolution of structures in the interstellar medium. However, currently our insight about the fraction of CO in spiral arm and interarm regions is still limited by large uncertainties in assumed rotation curve models or distance determination techniques. In this work we use a Bayesian approach to obtain the current best assessment of the distribution of 13CO from the Galactic Ring Survey. We performed two different distance estimates that either included or excluded a model for Galactic features. We also include a prior for the solution of the kinematic distance ambiguity that was determined from a compilation of literature distances and an assumed size-linewidth relationship. We find that the fraction of 13CO emission associated with spiral arm features varies from 76% to 84% between the two distance runs. The vertical distribution of the gas is concentrated around the Galactic midplane showing FWHM values of ~75 pc. We do not find any significant difference between gas emission properties associated with spiral arm and interarm features. In particular the distribution of velocity dispersion values of gas emission in spurs and spiral arms is very similar. We detect a trend of higher velocity dispersion values with increasing heliocentric distance, which we attribute to beam averaging effects caused by differences in spatial resolution. We argue that the true distribution of the gas emission is likely more similar to a combination of our two distance results, and highlight the importance of using complementary distance estimations to safeguard against the pitfalls of any single approach. We conclude that the methodology presented in this work is a promising way to determine distances to gas emission features in Galactic plane surveys., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 27 pages, 31 figures (main text: 18 pages, 21 figures). The PDF contains multi-layer figures that can be displayed with Adobe Acrobat. Table 2 with the distance results is available in its entirety at the CDS. The Python wrapper for the Bayesian Distance Calculator (BD_wrapper) is freely available at GitHub under https://github.com/mriener/BD_wrapper

Context: Atomic and molecular cloud formation is a dynamical process. However, kinematic signatures of these processes are still observationally poorly constrained. Methods: Targeting the cloud-scale environment of the prototypical infrared dark cloud G28.3, we employ spectral line imaging observations of the two atomic lines HI and [CI] as well as molecular lines observations in 13CO in the 1--0 and 3--2 transitions. The analysis comprises investigations of the kinematic properties of the different tracers, estimates of the mass flow rates, velocity structure functions, a Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG) study as well as comparisons to simulations. Results: The central IRDC is embedded in a more diffuse envelope of cold neutral medium (CNM) traced by HI self-absorption (HISA) and molecular gas. The spectral line data as well as the HOG and structure function analysis indicate a possible kinematic decoupling of the HI from the other gas compounds. Spectral analysis and position-velocity diagrams reveal two velocity components that converge at the position of the IRDC. Estimated mass flow rates appear rather constant from the cloud edge toward the center. The velocity structure function analysis is consistent with gas flows being dominated by the formation of hierarchical structures. Conclusions: The observations and analysis are consistent with a picture where the IRDC G28 is formed at the center of two converging gas flows. While the approximately constant mass flow rates are consistent with a self-similar, gravitationally driven collapse of the cloud, external compression by, e.g., spiral arm shocks or supernovae explosions cannot be excluded yet. Future investigations should aim at differentiating the origin of such converging gas flows., Comment: 13 pages, 15 figures, Astronomy & Astrophysics in press, a higher resolution version can be found at http://www.mpia.de/homes/beuther/papers.html

The analysis of large molecular line surveys of the Galactic plane is essential for our understanding of the gas kinematics on Galactic scales, in particular its link with the formation and evolution of dense structures in the interstellar medium. An approximation of the emission peaks with Gaussian functions allows for an efficient and straightforward extraction of useful physical information contained in the shape and Doppler-shifted frequency of the emission lines contained in these enormous data sets. In this work we present an overview and first results of a Gaussian decomposition of the entire Galactic Ring Survey (GRS) 13CO (1-0) data that consists of about 2.3 million spectra. We performed the decomposition with the fully automated GaussPy+ algorithm and fitted about 4.6 million Gaussian components to the GRS spectra. We discuss the statistics of the fit components and relations between the fitted intensities, velocity centroids, and velocity dispersions. We find that the magnitude of the velocity dispersion values increase toward the inner Galaxy and around the Galactic midplane, which we speculate is partly due to the influence of the Galactic bar and regions with higher non-thermal motions located in the midplane, respectively. We also use our decomposition results to infer global properties of the gas emission and find that the number of fit components used per spectrum is indicative for the amount of structure along the line of sight. We find that the emission lines from regions located on the far side of the Galaxy show increased velocity dispersion values, likely due to beam averaging effects. We demonstrate how this trend has the potential to aid in characterising Galactic structure by disentangling emission that is belonging to the nearby Aquila Rift molecular cloud from emission that is more likely associated with the Perseus and Outer spiral arms., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. 26 pages, 25 figures (main text: 16 pages, 16 figures; Appendix: 10 pages, 9 figures). The PDF contains multi-layer figures that can be displayed with Adobe Acrobat. Table 1 with the full decomposition results will be made publicly available soon; earlier access to the data is possible upon request from the corresponding author (M. Riener). Comments are welcome

Color-center-hosting semiconductors are emerging as promising source materials for low-field dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) at or near room temperature, but hyperfine broadening, susceptibility to magnetic field heterogeneity, and nuclear spin relaxation induced by other paramagnetic defects set practical constraints difficult to circumvent. Here, we explore an alternate route to color-center-assisted DNP using nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond coupled to substitutional nitrogen impurities, the so-called P1 centers. Working near the level anti-crossing condition - where the P1 Zeeman splitting matches one of the NV spin transitions - we demonstrate efficient microwave-free 13C DNP through the use of consecutive magnetic field sweeps and continuous optical excitation. The amplitude and sign of the polarization can be controlled by adjusting the low-to-high and high-to-low magnetic field sweep rates in each cycle so that one is much faster than the other. By comparing the 13C DNP response for different crystal orientations, we show that the process is robust to magnetic field/NV misalignment, a feature that makes the present technique suitable to diamond powders and settings where the field is heterogeneous. Applications to shallow NVs could capitalize on the greater physical proximity between surface paramagnetic defects and outer nuclei to efficiently polarize target samples in contact with the diamond crystal.

Young massive clusters (YMCs) are the most compact, high-mass stellar systems still forming at the present day. The precursor clouds to such systems are, however, rare due to their large initial gas mass reservoirs and rapid dispersal timescales due to stellar feedback. Nonetheless, unlike their high-z counterparts, these precursors are resolvable down to the sites of individually forming stars, and hence represent the ideal environments in which to test the current theories of star and cluster formation. Using high angular resolution (1$^{\prime\prime}$ / 0.05pc) and sensitivity ALMA observations of two YMC progenitor clouds in the Galactic Centre, we have identified a suite of molecular line transitions -- e.g. c-C$_{3}$H$_{2} $($7-6$) -- that are believed to be optically thin, and reliably trace the gas structure in the highest density gas on star-forming core scales. We conduct a virial analysis of the identified core and proto-cluster regions, and show that half of the cores (5/10) and both proto-clusters are unstable to gravitational collapse. This is the first kinematic evidence of global gravitational collapse in YMC precursor clouds at such an early evolutionary stage. The implications are that if these clouds are to form YMCs, then they likely do so via the "conveyor-belt" mode, whereby stars continually form within dispersed dense gas cores as the cloud undergoes global gravitational collapse. The concurrent contraction of both the cluster-scale gas and embedded (proto)stars ultimately leads to the high (proto)stellar density in YMCs., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 22 pages (+22 pages of appendix), 10 (+21 in appendix) figures, 5 (+1 in appendix) tables

In this paper we provide a comprehensive description of the internal dynamics of G0.253+0.016 (a.k.a. 'the Brick'); one of the most massive and dense molecular clouds in the Galaxy to lack signatures of widespread star formation. As a potential host to a future generation of high-mass stars, understanding largely quiescent molecular clouds like G0.253+0.016 is of critical importance. In this paper, we reanalyse Atacama Large Millimeter Array cycle 0 HNCO $J=4(0,4)-3(0,3)$ data at 3 mm, using two new pieces of software which we make available to the community. First, scousepy, a Python implementation of the spectral line fitting algorithm scouse. Secondly, acorns (Agglomerative Clustering for ORganising Nested Structures), a hierarchical n-dimensional clustering algorithm designed for use with discrete spectroscopic data. Together, these tools provide an unbiased measurement of the line of sight velocity dispersion in this cloud, $\sigma_{v_{los}, {\rm 1D}}=4.4\pm2.1$ kms$^{-1}$, which is somewhat larger than predicted by velocity dispersion-size relations for the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ). The dispersion of centroid velocities in the plane of the sky are comparable, yielding $\sigma_{v_{los}, {\rm 1D}}/\sigma_{v_{pos}, {\rm 1D}}\sim1.2\pm0.3$. This isotropy may indicate that the line-of-sight extent of the cloud is approximately equivalent to that in the plane of the sky. Combining our kinematic decomposition with radiative transfer modelling we conclude that G0.253+0.016 is not a single, coherent, and centrally-condensed molecular cloud; 'the Brick' is not a \emph{brick}. Instead, G0.253+0.016 is a dynamically complex and hierarchically-structured molecular cloud whose morphology is consistent with the influence of the orbital dynamics and shear in the CMZ., Comment: 29 pages, 19 figures, 1 table (including appendix). Accepted for publication in MNRAS (February 4, 2019). Scousepy is available here: https://github.com/jdhenshaw/scousepy. Acorns is available here: https://github.com/jdhenshaw/acorns

The evolution of molecular clouds in galactic centres is thought to differ from that in galactic discs due to a significant influence of the external gravitational potential. We present a set of numerical simulations of molecular clouds orbiting on the 100-pc stream of the Central Molecular Zone (the central $\sim500$ pc of the Galaxy) and characterise their morphological and kinematic evolution in response to the background potential and eccentric orbital motion. We find that the clouds are shaped by strong shear and torques, by tidal and geometric deformation, and by their passage through the orbital pericentre. Within our simulations, these mechanisms control cloud sizes, aspect ratios, position angles, filamentary structure, column densities, velocity dispersions, line-of-sight velocity gradients, spin angular momenta, and kinematic complexity. By comparing these predictions to observations of clouds on the Galactic Centre 'dust ridge', we find that our simulations naturally reproduce a broad range of key observed morphological and kinematic features, which can be explained in terms of well-understood physical mechanisms. We argue that the accretion of gas clouds onto the central regions of galaxies, where the rotation curve turns over and the tidal field is fully compressive, is accompanied by transformative dynamical changes to the clouds, leading to collapse and star formation. This can generate an evolutionary progression of cloud collapse with a common starting point, which either marks the time of accretion onto the tidally-compressive region or of the most recent pericentre passage. Together, these processes may naturally produce the synchronised starbursts observed in numerous (extra)galactic nuclei., Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, 3 tables; accepted by MNRAS (February 5, 2019); Figures 2, 3, and 4 show the main results of the paper. An animated version of Figure 2 is available as an ancillary file in the arXiv source and will be included as online Supporting Information with the MNRAS publication

Infrared dark clouds (IRDCs) are thought to be potential hosts of the elusive early phases of high-mass star formation. Here we conduct an in-depth kinematic analysis of one such IRDC, G034.43+00.24 (Cloud F), using high sensitivity and high spectral resolution IRAM-30m N$_2$H$^+$ ($1-0$) and C$^{18}$O ($1-0$) observations. To disentangle the complex velocity structure within this cloud we use Gaussian decomposition and hierarchical clustering algorithms. We find that four distinct coherent velocity components are present within Cloud F. The properties of these components are compared to those found in a similar IRDC, G035.39-00.33 (Cloud H). We find that the components in both clouds have: high densities (inferred by their identification in N$_2$H$^+$), trans-to-supersonic non-thermal velocity dispersions with Mach numbers of $\sim$ $1.5-4$, a separation in velocity of $\sim$3 km s$^{-1}$, and a mean red-shift of $\sim$ 0.3 km s$^{-1}$ between the N$_2$H$^+$ (dense gas) and C$^{18}$O emission (envelope gas). The latter of these could suggest that these clouds share a common formation scenario. We investigate the kinematics of the larger-scale Cloud F structures, using lower-density-tracing $^{13}$CO ($1-0$) observations. A good correspondence is found between the components identified in the IRAM-30m observations and the most prominent component in the$^{13}$CO data. We find that the IRDC Cloud F is only a small part of a much larger structure, which appears to be an inter-arm filament of the Milky Way.

Infrared-Dark Clouds (IRDCs) are cold, dense regions of high (optical and infrared) extinction, believed to be the birthplace of high-mass stars and stellar clusters. The physical mechanisms leading to the formation of these IRDCs are not completely understood and it is thus important to study their molecular gas kinematics and chemical content to search for any signature of the IRDCs formation process. Using the 30m-diameter antenna at the Instituto de Radioastronom\'ia Milim\'etrica, we have obtained emission maps of dense gas tracers (H$^{13}$CO$^{+}$ and HN$^{13}$C) and typical shock tracers (SiO and CH$_3$OH) toward three IRDCs, G028.37+00.07, G034.43+00.24 and G034.77-00.55 (clouds C, F and G, respectively). We have studied the molecular gas kinematics in these clouds and, consistent with previous works toward other IRDCs, the clouds show complex gas kinematics with several velocity-coherent sub-structures separated in velocity space by a few km s$^{-1}$. Correlated with these complex kinematic structures, widespread (parsec-scale) emission of SiO and CH$_3$OH is present in all the three clouds. For clouds C and F, known to be actively forming stars, widespread SiO and CH$_3$OH is likely associated with on-going star formation activity. However, for cloud G, which lacks either 8 $\mu$m or 24 $\mu$m sources and 4.5 $\mu$m H$_2$ shock-excited emission, the detected widespread SiO and CH$_3$OH emission may have originated in a large-scale shock interaction, although a scenario involving a population of low-mass stars driving molecular outflows cannot be fully ruled out., Comment: 23 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

The star formation rate in the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) is an order of magnitude lower than predicted according to star formation relations that have been calibrated in the disc of our own and nearby galaxies. Understanding how and why star formation appears to be different in this region is crucial if we are to understand the environmental dependence of the star formation process. Here, we present the detection of a sample of high-mass cores in the CMZ's "dust ridge" that have been discovered with the Submillimeter Array as part of the CMZoom survey. These cores range in mass from ~ 50 - 2150 Msun within radii of 0.1 - 0.25 pc. All appear to be young (pre-UCHII), meaning that they are prime candidates for representing the initial conditions of high-mass stars and sub-clusters. We report that at least two of these cores ('c1' and 'e1') contain young, high-mass protostars. We compare all of the detected cores with high-mass cores in the Galactic disc and find that they are broadly similar in terms of their masses and sizes, despite being subjected to external pressures that are several orders of magnitude greater - ~ 10^8 K/cm^3, as opposed to ~ 10^5 K/cm^3. The fact that > 80% of these cores do not show any signs of star-forming activity in such a high-pressure environment leads us to conclude that this is further evidence for an increased critical density threshold for star formation in the CMZ due to turbulence., Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, 3 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Nitrogen is one of the most abundant elements in the Universe and its 14N/15N isotopic ratio has the potential to provide information about the initial environment in which our Sun formed. Recent findings suggest that the Solar System may have formed in a massive cluster since the presence of short-lived radioisotopes in meteorites can only be explained by the influence of a supernova. The aim of this project is to determine the 14N/15N ratio towards a sample of cold, massive dense cores at the initial stages in their evolution. We have observed the J=1-0 transitions of HCN, H13CN, HC15N, HN13C and H15NC toward a sample of 22 cores in 4 Infrared-Dark Clouds (IRDCs). IRDCs are believed to be the precursors of high-mass stars and star clusters. Assuming LTE and a temperature of 15K, the column densities of HCN, H13CN, HC15N, HN13C and H15NC are calculated and their 14N/15N ratio is determined for each core. The 14N/15N ratio measured in our sample of IRDC cores range between ~70 and >763 in HCN and between ~161 and ~541 in HNC. They are consistent with the terrestrial atmosphere (TA) and protosolar nebula (PSN) values, and with the ratios measured in low-mass pre-stellar cores. However, the 14N/15N ratios measured in cores C1, C3, F1, F2 and G2 do not agree with the results from similar studies toward the same massive cores using nitrogen bearing molecules with nitrile functional group (-CN) and nitrogen hydrides (-NH) although the ratio spread covers a similar range. Amongst the 4 IRDCs we measured relatively low 14N/15N ratios towards IRDC G which are comparable to those measured in small cosmomaterials and protoplanetary disks. The low average gas density of this cloud suggests that the gas density, rather than the gas temperature, may be the dominant parameter influencing the initial nitrogen isotopic composition in young PSN., Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, accepted in Astronomy & Astrophysics

The inner few hundred parsecs of the Milky Way harbours gas densities, pressures, velocity dispersions, an interstellar radiation field and a cosmic ray ionisation rate orders of magnitude higher than the disc; akin to the environment found in star-forming galaxies at high-redshift. Previous studies have shown that this region is forming stars at a rate per unit mass of dense gas which is at least an order of magnitude lower than in the disc, potentially violating theoretical predictions. We show that all observational star formation rate diagnostics - both direct counting of young stellar objects and integrated light measurements - are in agreement within a factor two, hence the low star formation rate is not the result of the systematic uncertainties that affect any one method. As these methods trace the star formation over different timescales, from $0.1 - 5$ Myr, we conclude that the star formation rate has been constant to within a factor of a few within this time period. We investigate the progression of star formation within gravitationally bound clouds on $\sim$ parsec scales and find $1 - 4$ per cent of the cloud masses are converted into stars per free-fall time, consistent with a subset of the considered "volumetric" star formation models. However, discriminating between these models is obstructed by the current uncertainties on the input observables and, most importantly and urgently, by their dependence on ill-constrained free parameters. The lack of empirical constraints on these parameters therefore represents a key challenge in the further verification or falsification of current star formation theories., Comment: 26 pages, 10 figures, 7 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

The H2O Southern Galactic Plane Survey (HOPS) has mapped 100 square degrees of the Galactic plane for water masers and thermal molecular line emission using the 22-m Mopra telescope. We describe the automated spectral-line fitting pipelines used to determine the properties of emission detected in HOPS datacubes, and use these to derive the physical and kinematic properties of gas in the survey. A combination of the angular resolution, sensitivity, velocity resolution and high critical density of lines targeted make the HOPS data cubes ideally suited to finding precursor clouds to the most massive and dense stellar clusters in the Galaxy. We compile a list of the most massive HOPS ammonia regions and investigate whether any may be young massive cluster progenitor gas clouds. HOPS is also ideally suited to trace the flows of dense gas in the Galactic Centre. We find the kinematic structure of gas within the inner 500pc of the Galaxy is consistent with recent predictions for the dynamical evolution of gas flows in the centre of the Milky Way. We confirm a recent finding that the dense gas in the inner 100pc has an oscillatory kinematic structure with characteristic length scale of ~20pc, and also identify similar oscillatory kinematic structure in the gas at radii larger than 100pc. Finally, we make all of the above fits and the remaining HOPS data cubes across the 100 square degrees of the survey available to the community., Comment: 53 pages, 34 figures, 4 tables. Submitted MNRAS. Paper with full resolution images can be downloaded here: http://www.astro.ljmu.ac.uk/~snl/hops_p3.pdf

The central molecular zone (CMZ) hosts some of the most massive and dense molecular clouds and star clusters in the Galaxy, offering an important window into star formation under extreme conditions. Star formation in this extreme environment may be closely linked to the 3-D distribution and orbital dynamics of the gas. Here I discuss how our new, accurate description of the $\{l,b,v\}$ structure of the CMZ is helping to constrain its 3-D geometry. I also present the discovery of a highly-regular, corrugated velocity field located just upstream from the dust ridge molecular clouds (which include G0.253+0.016 and Sgr B2). The extremes in this velocity field correlate with a series of massive ($\sim10^{4}$ M$_{\odot}$) cloud condensations. The corrugation wavelength ($\sim23$ pc) and cloud separation ($\sim8$ pc) closely agree with the predicted Toomre ($\sim17$ pc) and Jeans ($\sim6$ pc) lengths, respectively. I conclude that gravitational instabilities are driving the formation of molecular clouds within the Galactic Centre gas stream. Furthermore, I suggest that these seeds are the historical analogues of the dust ridge molecular clouds - possible progenitors of some of the most massive and dense molecular clouds in the Galaxy. If our current best understanding for the 3-D geometry of this system is confirmed, these clouds may pinpoint the beginning of an evolutionary sequence that can be followed, in time, from cloud condensation to star formation., Comment: Proceedings IAU Symposium 322, The Multi-Messenger Astrophysics of the Galactic Centre, Eds. R. Crocker, S. Longmore & G. Bicknell, Cambridge University Press

Star formation within the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) may be intimately linked to the orbital dynamics of the gas. Recent models suggest that star formation within the dust ridge molecular clouds (from G0.253+0.016 to Sgr B2) follows an evolutionary time sequence, triggered by tidal compression during their preceding pericentre passage. Given that these clouds are the most likely precursors to a generation of massive stars and extreme star clusters, this scenario would have profound implications for constraining the time-evolution of star formation. In this Letter, we search for the initial conditions of the protocluster clouds, focusing on the kinematics of gas situated upstream from pericentre. We observe a highly-regular corrugated velocity field in $\{l,\,v_{\rm LSR}\}$ space, with amplitude and wavelength $A=3.7\,\pm\,0.1$ kms$^{-1}$ and $\lambda_{\rm vel, i}=22.5\,\pm\,0.1$ pc, respectively. The extremes in velocity correlate with a series of massive ($\sim10^{4}$M$_{\odot}$) and compact ($R_{\rm eq}\sim2$ pc), quasi-regularly spaced ($\sim8$ pc), molecular clouds. The corrugation wavelength and cloud separation closely agree with the predicted Toomre ($\sim17$ pc) and Jeans ($\sim6$ pc) lengths, respectively. We conclude that gravitational instabilities are driving the condensation of molecular clouds within the Galactic Centre gas stream. Furthermore, we speculate these seeds are the historical analogue of the dust-ridge molecular clouds, representing the initial conditions of star and cluster formation in the CMZ., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letters. Table values updated, conclusions unaffected

High-mass stars shape the interstellar medium in galaxies, and yet, largely because the initial conditions are poorly constrained, we do not know how they form. One possibility is that high-mass stars and star clusters form at the junction of filamentary networks, referred to as 'hubs'. In this letter we present the complex anatomy of a protocluster hub within an Infrared Dark Cloud (IRDC), G035.39-00.33, believed to be in an early phase of its evolution. We use high-angular resolution ($\{\theta_{\rm maj}, \theta_{\rm min}\}=\{1.4{\rm arcsec}, 0.8{\rm arcsec}\}\sim\{0.02{\rm pc}, 0.01{\rm pc}\}$) and high-sensitivity ($0.2$mJy beam$^{-1}$; $\sim0.2$M$_{\odot}$) 1.07 mm dust continuum observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) to identify a network of narrow, $0.028\,\pm\,0.005$pc wide, filamentary structures. These are a factor of $\gtrsim3$ narrower than the proposed 'quasi-universal' $\sim0.1$pc width of interstellar filaments. Additionally, 28 compact objects are reported, spanning a mass range $0.3{\rm M_{\odot}}

We present 3.7 arcsec (~0.05 pc) resolution 3.2 mm dust continuum observations from the IRAM PdBI, with the aim of studying the structure and fragmentation of the filamentary Infrared Dark Cloud G035.39-00.33. The continuum emission is segmented into a series of 13 quasi-regularly spaced (~0.18pc) cores, following the major axis of the IRDC. We compare the spatial distribution of the cores with that predicted by theoretical work describing the fragmentation of hydrodynamic fluid cylinders, finding a significant (a factor of ~8) discrepancy between the two. Our observations are consistent with the picture emerging from kinematic studies of molecular clouds suggesting that the cores are harboured within a complex network of independent sub-filaments. This result emphasizes the importance of considering the underlying physical structure, and potentially, dynamically important magnetic fields, in any fragmentation analysis. The identified cores exhibit a range in (peak) beam-averaged column density ($3.6{\rm x}10^{23}{\rm cm}^{-2}

Infrared Dark Clouds (IRDCs) are cold, dense regions that are usually found within Giant Molecular Clouds (GMCs). Ongoing star formation within IRDCs is typically still deeply embedded within the surrounding molecular gas. Characterising the properties of relatively quiescent IRDCs may therefore help us to understand the earliest phases of the star formation process. Studies of local molecular clouds have revealed that deuterated species are enhanced in the earliest phases of star formation. In this paper we test this towards IRDC G035.39-00.33. We present an 80 arcsec by 140 arcsec map of the J=2-1 transition of N2D+, obtained with the IRAM-30m telescope. We find that N2D+ is widespread throughout G035.39-00.33. Complementary observations of N2H+(1-0) are used to estimate the deuterium fraction, N(N2D+)/N(N2H+). We report a mean deuterium fraction of 0.04+-0.01, with a maximum of 0.09+-0.02. The mean deuterium fraction is ~3 orders of magnitude greater than the interstellar [D]/[H] ratio. High angular resolution observations are required to exclude beam dilution effects of compact deuterated cores. Using chemical modelling, we find that the average observed values of the deuterium fraction are in agreement with an equilibrium deuterium fraction, given the general properties of the cloud. This implies that the IRDC is at least ~3Myr old, which is ~8 times longer than the mean free-fall time of the observed deuterated region., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 10 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables

Using spectral-line observations of HNCO, N2H+, and HNC, we investigate the kinematics of dense gas in the central ~250 pc of the Galaxy. We present SCOUSE (Semi-automated multi-COmponent Universal Spectral-line fitting Engine), a line fitting algorithm designed to analyse large volumes of spectral-line data efficiently and systematically. Unlike techniques which do not account for complex line profiles, SCOUSE accurately describes the {l, b, v_LSR} distribution of CMZ gas, which is asymmetric about Sgr A* in both position and velocity. Velocity dispersions range from 2.6 km/s<\sigma<53.1 km/s. A median dispersion of 9.8 km/s, translates to a Mach number, M_3D>28. The gas is distributed throughout several "streams", with projected lengths ~100-250 pc. We link the streams to individual clouds and sub-regions, including Sgr C, the 20 and 50 km/s clouds, the dust ridge, and Sgr B2. Shell-like emission features can be explained by the projection of independent molecular clouds in Sgr C and the newly identified conical profile of Sgr B2 in {l ,b, v_LSR} space. These features have previously invoked supernova-driven shells and cloud-cloud collisions as explanations. We instead caution against structure identification in velocity-integrated emission maps. Three geometries describing the 3-D structure of the CMZ are investigated: i) two spiral arms; ii) a closed elliptical orbit; iii) an open stream. While two spiral arms and an open stream qualitatively reproduce the gas distribution, the most recent parameterisation of the closed elliptical orbit does not. Finally, we discuss how proper motion measurements of masers can distinguish between these geometries, and suggest that this effort should be focused on the 20 km/s and 50 km/s clouds and Sgr C., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 30 pages (including appendices), 22 figures, 3 tables. This updated version includes minor corrections (including typos and updated references). SCOUSE is available for download at https://github.com/jdhenshaw/SCOUSE. A selection of PPV movies can be downloaded at https://github.com/jdhenshaw/PPV_movies