Search

We present the SARAO MeerKAT Galactic Plane Survey (SMGPS), a 1.3 GHz continuum survey of almost half of the Galactic Plane (251\deg $\le l \le$ 358\deg and 2\deg $\le l \le$ 61\deg at $|b| \le 1.5\deg $). SMGPS is the largest, most sensitive and highest angular resolution 1 GHz survey of the Plane yet carried out, with an angular resolution of 8" and a broadband RMS sensitivity of $\sim$10--20 $\mu$ Jy/beam. Here we describe the first publicly available data release from SMGPS which comprises data cubes of frequency-resolved images over 908--1656 MHz, power law fits to the images, and broadband zeroth moment integrated intensity images. A thorough assessment of the data quality and guidance for future usage of the data products are given. Finally, we discuss the tremendous potential of SMGPS by showcasing highlights of the Galactic and extragalactic science that it permits. These highlights include the discovery of a new population of non-thermal radio filaments; identification of new candidate supernova remnants, pulsar wind nebulae and planetary nebulae; improved radio/mid-IR classification of rare Luminous Blue Variables and discovery of associated extended radio nebulae; new radio stars identified by Bayesian cross-matching techniques; the realisation that many of the largest radio-quiet WISE HII region candidates are not true HII regions; and a large sample of previously undiscovered background HI galaxies in the Zone of Avoidance., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. The data release is live and links can be found in the Data Availability Statement in the paper

This study uses archival high frequency continuum data to expand the search for Hypercompact HII regions and determine the conditions at which they appear, as this stage high mass star formation is short-lived and rare. We use 23 GHz continuum data taken towards methanol masers, which are an excellent signpost for very young embedded high-mass protostars. We have searched for high-frequency, optically thick radio sources to identify HC HII region candidates. The data cover 128 fields that include 141 methanol masers identified by the Methanol Multibeam (MMB) survey. We have detected 68 high-frequency radio sources and conducted a multi-wavelength analysis to determine their nature. This has identified 49 HII regions, 47 of which are embedded in dense clumps fourteen of which do not have a 5 GHz radio counterpart. We have identified 13 methanol maser sites that are coincident with radio sources that have a steep positive spectral index. The majority of these are not detected in the mid-infrared and have been classified as protostellar or young stellar objects in the literature and we therefore consider to be good HC HII region candidates, however, further work and higher resolution data are needed to confirm these candidates.

We present the first high spatial resolution radio continuum survey of the southern Galactic plane. The CORNISH project has mapped the region defined by $295^{\circ} < l < 350^{\circ}$; $|b| < 1^{\circ}$ at 5.5-GHz, with a resolution of 2.5$^{''}$ (FWHM). As with the CORNISH-North survey, this is designed to primarily provide matching radio data to the Spitzer GLIMPSE survey region. The CORNISH-South survey achieved a root mean square noise level of $\sim$ 0.11 mJy beam$^{-1}$, using the 6A configuration of the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). In this paper, we discuss the observations, data processing and measurements of the source properties. Above a 7$\sigma$ detection limit, 4701 sources were detected, and their ensemble properties show similar distributions with their northern counterparts. The catalogue is highly reliable and is complete to 90 per cent at a flux density level of 1.1 mJy. We developed a new way of measuring the integrated flux densities and angular sizes of non-Gaussian sources. The catalogue primarily provides positions, flux density measurements and angular sizes. All sources with IR counterparts at 8$\mu m$ have been visually classified, utilizing additional imaging data from optical, near-IR, mid-IR, far-IR and sub-millimetre galactic plane surveys. This has resulted in the detection of 524 H II regions of which 255 are ultra-compact H II regions, 287 planetary nebulae, 79 radio stars and 6 massive young stellar objects. The rest of the sources are likely to be extra-galactic. These data are particularly important in the characterization and population studies of compact ionized sources such as UCHII regions and PNe towards the Galactic mid-plane.

Increasing evidence suggests that, similar to their low-mass counterparts, high-mass stars form through a disk-mediated accretion process. At the same time, formation of high-mass stars still necessitates high accretion rates, and hence, high gas densities, which in turn can cause disks to become unstable against gravitational fragmentation. We study the kinematics and fragmentation of the disk around the high-mass star forming region AFGL 2591-VLA 3 which was hypothesized to be fragmenting based on the observations that show multiple outflow directions. We use a new set of high-resolution (0.19 arcsec) IRAM/NOEMA observations at 843 micron towards VLA 3 which allow us to resolve its disk, characterize the fragmentation, and study its kinematics. In addition to the 843 micron continuum emission, our spectral setup targets warm dense gas and outflow tracers such as HCN, HC$_3$N and SO$_2$, as well as vibrationally excited HCN lines. The high resolution continuum and line emission maps reveal multiple fragments with subsolar masses within the inner 1000 AU of VLA 3. Furthermore, the velocity field of the inner disk observed at 843 micron shows a similar behavior to that of the larger scale velocity field studied in the CORE project at 1.37 mm. We present the first observational evidence for disk fragmentation towards AFGL 2591-VLA 3, a source that was thought to be a single high-mass core. While the fragments themselves are low-mass, the rotation of the disk is dominated by the protostar with a mass of 10.3$\pm 1.8~M_{\odot}$. These data also show that NOEMA Band 4 can obtain the highest currently achievable spatial resolution at (sub-)mm wavelengths in observations of strong northern sources., Comment: 16 pages, 11 figures, Accepted for publication in A&A

In conjunction with a previous southern-hemisphere work, we present the largest radio survey of jets from massive protostars to date with high-resolution, ($\sim 0.04^{\prime\prime}$) VLA observations towards two subsamples of massive star-forming regions of different evolutionary statuses: 48 infrared-bright, massive YSOs and 8 IRDCs containing 16 luminous (${\rm L_{bol}}>10^3\,{\rm L_\odot}$) cores. For $94\%$ of the MYSO sample we detect thermal radio ($\alpha \geq -0.1$ whereby $S_\nu \propto \nu^\alpha$) sources coincident with the protostar, of which $84\%$ (13 jets and 25 candidates) are jet-like. Radio luminosity is found to scale with ${\rm L_{bol}}$ similarly to the low-mass case supporting a common mechanism for jet production across all masses. Associated radio lobes tracing shocks are seen towards $52\%$ of jet-like objects and are preferentially detected towards jets of higher radio and bolometric luminosities, resulting from our sensitivity limitations. We find jet mass loss rate scales with bolometric luminosity as $\dot{m}_{\rm jet} \propto {\rm L_{bol}}^{0.9\pm0.2}$, thereby discarding radiative, line-driving mechanisms as the dominant jet-launching process. Calculated momenta show that the majority of jets are mechanically capable of driving the massive, molecular outflow phenomena since $p_{\rm jet}>p_{\rm outflow}$. Finally, from their physical extent we show that the radio emission can not originate from small, optically-thick \textsc{Hii} regions. Towards the IRDC cores, we observe increasing incidence rates/radio fluxes with age using the proxy of increasing luminosity-to-mass $\left( \frac{L}{M} \right)$ and decreasing infrared flux ratios $\left(\frac{S_{70 \rm \mu m}}{S_{24 \rm \mu m}}\right)$. Cores with $\frac{L}{M}<40\,{\rm L_{sol}}{\rm M_{sol}}^{-1}$ are not detected above ($5.8{\rm GHz}$) radio luminosities of $\sim1{\rm mJy\,kpc}^2$., Comment: To be published in MNRAS. 20 pages main text (4 tables, 14 figures), 90 pages appendices (6 tables, 66 figures)

We report the results of the Jansky Very Large Array (JVLA) observation of five massive protostars at 6 and 22.2 GHz. The aim of the study was to compare their current fluxes and positions with previous observations to search for evidence of variability. Most of the observed sources present the morphologies of a thermal core, hosting the protostar and exhibiting no proper motion, and associated non-thermal radio lobes that are characterised by proper motions and located away from the thermal core. Some of the protostars drive jets whose lobes have dissimilar displacement vectors, implying precession of the jets or the presence of multiple jet drivers. The jets of the protostars were found to have proper motions that lie in the range 170$ \leq v \leq $650 kms$^{-1}$, and precessions of periods 40$\leq p \leq$50 years and angles 2$\leq \alpha \leq$10$^\circ$, assuming that their velocities $v=$500 kms$^{-1}$. The core of one of the sources, S255 NIRS 3, which was in outburst at the time of our observations, showed a significant change in flux compared to the other sources. Its spectral index decreased during the outburst, consistent with the model of an expanding gas bubble. Modelling the emission of the outburst as that of a new non-thermal lobe that is emerging from a thermal core whose emission enshrouds that of the lobe also has the potential to account for the increase in flux and a decrease in the spectral index of the source's outburst., Comment: 16 pages, 15 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

We have studied the dust density, temperature and velocity distributions of the archetypal massive young stellar object (MYSO) AFGL 2591. Given its high luminosity ($L=2 \times 10^5$ L$_\odot$) and distance ($d=3.3$ kpc), AFGL 2591 has one of the highest $\sqrt{L}/d$ ratio, giving better resolved dust emission than any other MYSO. As such, this paper provides a template on how to use resolved multi-wavelength data and radiative transfer to obtain a well-constrained 2-D axi-symmetric analytic rotating infall model. We show for the first time that the resolved dust continuum emission from Herschel 70 $\mu$m observations is extended along the outflow direction, whose origin is explained in part from warm dust in the outflow cavity walls. However, the model can only explain the kinematic features from CH$_3$CN observations with unrealistically low stellar masses ($<15$ M$_\odot$), indicating that additional physical processes may be playing a role in slowing down the envelope rotation. As part of our 3-step continuum and line fitting, we have identified model parameters that can be further constrained by specific observations. High-resolution mm visibilities were fitted to obtain the disc mass (6 M$_\odot$) and radius (2200 au). A combination of SED and near-IR observations were used to estimate the luminosity and envelope mass together with the outflow cavity inclination and opening angles., Comment: 34 pages, 22 figures, 15 tables, 4 appendices. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present a detailed analysis of the disk and circumstellar environment of the forming O-type star AFGL 4176 mm1, placing results from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) into context with multiwavelength data. With ALMA, we detect seventeen 1.2 mm continuum sources within 5$''$ (21,000 au) of AFGL 4176 mm1. We find that mm1 has a spectral index of 3.4$\pm$0.2 across the ALMA band, with $>$87% of its 1.2 mm continuum emission from dust. The source mm2, projected 4200 au from mm1, may be a companion or a blueshifted knot in a jet. We also explore the morphological differences between the molecular lines detected with ALMA, finding 203 lines from 25 molecules, which we categorize into several morphological types. Our results show that AFGL 4176 mm1 provides an example of a forming O-star with a large and chemically complex disk, which is mainly traced by nitrogen-bearing molecules. Lines that show strong emission on the blueshifted side of the disk are predominantly oxygen-bearing, which we suggest are tracing a disk accretion shock. The molecules C$^{34}$S, H$_2$CS and CH$_{3}$CCN trace a slow wide-angle wind or dense structures in the outflow cavity walls. With the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), we detect a compact continuum source ($<$2000 $\times$ 760 au) at 1.2 cm, associated with mm1, of which $>$96% is from ionized gas. The ATCA NH$_3$(1,1) and (2,2) emission traces a large-scale (r$\sim$0.5 pc) rotating toroid with the disk source mm1 in the blueshifted part of this structure offset to the northwest., Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal, 50 pages, 26 figures. Data available online at http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3369188

We present high-resolution (30 mas or 130 au at 4.2 kpc) Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array observations at 1.2 mm of the disc around the forming O-type star AFGL 4176 mm1. The disc (AFGL 4176 mm1-main) has a radius of ~1000 au and contains significant structure, most notably a spiral arm on its redshifted side. We fitted the observed spiral with logarithmic and Archimedean spiral models. We find that both models can describe its structure, but the Archimedean spiral with a varying pitch angle fits its morphology marginally better. As well as signatures of rotation across the disc, we observe gas arcs in CH$_3$CN that connect to other millimetre continuum sources in the field, supporting the picture of interactions within a small cluster around AFGL 4176 mm1-main. Using local thermodynamic equilibrium modelling of the CH$_3$CN K-ladder, we determine the temperature and velocity field across the disc, and thus produce a map of the Toomre stability parameter. Our results indicate that the outer disc is gravitationally unstable and has already fragmented or is likely to fragment in the future, possibly producing further companions. These observations provide evidence that disc fragmentation is one possible pathway towards explaining the high fraction of multiple systems around high-mass stars., Comment: Accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysics Letters, 8 pages (2 pages appendices), 11 figures

We present the highest angular resolution (20x15mas - 44x33au) Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) observations currently possible of the proto-O-star G17.64+0.16 in Band 6. The Cycle 5 observations with baselines out to 16km probes scales <50au and reveal the rotating disc around G17.64+0.16, a massive forming O-type star. The disc has a ring-like enhancement in the dust emission, especially visible as arc structures to the north and south. The Keplerian kinematics are most prominently seen in the vibrationally excited water line, H2O (Eu=3461.9K). The mass of the central source found by modelling the Keplerian rotation is consistent with 45+/-10Mo. The H30alpha (231.9GHz) radio-recombination line and the SiO (5-4) molecular line were detected at up to the 10 sigma$ level. The estimated disc mass is 0.6-2.6Mo under the optically thin assumption. Analysis of the Toomre Q parameter, in the optically thin regime, indicates that the disc stability is highly dependent on temperature. The disc currently appears stable for temperatures >150K, this does not preclude that the substructures formed earlier through disc fragmentation., Comment: 9 Total, inc references, appendix, long author list, 4 figures (inc appendix)

Massive young stellar objects (MYSOs) have recently been shown to drive jets whose particles can interact with either the magnetic fields of the jet or ambient medium to emit non-thermal radiation. We report a search for non-thermal radio emission from a sample of 15 MYSOs to establish the prevalence of the emission in the objects. We used their spectra across the L-, C- and Q-bands along with spectral index maps to characterise their emission. We find that about 50% of the sources show evidence for non-thermal emission with 40% showing clear non-thermal lobes, especially sources of higher bolometric luminosity. The common or IRAS names of the sources that manifest non-thermal lobes are; V645Cyg, IRAS 22134+5834, NGC 7538 IRS 9, IRAS 23262+640, AFGL 402d and AFGL 490. All the central cores of the sources are thermal with corresponding mass-loss rates that lie in the range 3X10^{-7} to 7X10^{-6} solar masses per year. Given the presence of non-thermal lobes in some of the sources and the evidence of non-thermal emission from some spectral index maps, it seems that magnetic fields play a significant role in the jets of massive protostars. Also noted is that some of the sources show evidence of binarity and variability., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS

We present high angular resolution 0.2 arcsec continuum and molecular emission line Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) observations of G17.64+0.16 in Band 6 (220GHz) taken as part of a campaign in search of circumstellar discs around (proto)-O-stars. At a resolution of 400au the main continuum core is essentially unresolved and isolated from other strong and compact emission peaks. At a resolution of 400au the main continuum core is essentially unresolved and isolated from other strong and compact emission peaks. We detect SiO (5-4) emission that is marginally resolved and elongated in a direction perpendicular to the large-scale outflow seen in the 13CO (2-1) line using the main ALMA array in conjunction with the Atacama Compact Array (ACA). Morphologically, the SiO appears to represent a disc-like structure. Using parametric models we show that the position-velocity profile of the SiO is consistent with the Keplerian rotation of a disc around an object between 10-30Mo in mass, only if there is also radial expansion from a separate structure. The radial motion component can be interpreted as a disc wind from the disc surface. Models with a central stellar object mass between 20 and 30Mo are the most consistent with the stellar luminosity (100000 Lo) and indicative of an O-type star. The H30a millimetre recombination line (231.9GHz) is also detected, but spatially unresolved, and is indicative of a very compact, hot, ionised region co-spatial with the dust continuum core. Accounting for all observables, we suggest that G17.64 is consistent with a O-type young stellar object in the final stages of protostellar assembly, driving a wind, but that has not yet developed into a compact HII region. The existance and detection of the disc in G17.64 is likely related to its isolated and possibly more evolved nature, traits which may underpin discs in similar sources., Comment: 23 pages, 13 fig (inc 3 Appendix figures)

We present sensitive ($\sigma<10{\rm \mu Jy \, beam^{-1}}$), radio continuum observations using the Australian telescope compact array (ATCA) at frequencies of $6$ and $9$ GHz towards 4 MYSOs. From a previous, less sensitive work, these objects are known to harbour ionized jets associated with radio lobes, which result from shock processes. In comparison with that work, further emission components are detected towards each MYSO. These include extended, direct, thermal emission from the ionized jet's stream, new radio lobes indicative of shocks close ($<10^5\, {\rm au}$) to the MYSO, 3 radio Herbig-Haro objects separated by up to $3.8 {\rm pc}$ from the jet's launching site and an IR-dark source coincident with CH$_3$OH maser emission. No significant, integrated flux variability is detected towards any jets or shocked lobes, and only one proper motion is observed ($1806\pm596\,{\rm km \, s^{-1}}$ parallel to the jet axis of G310.1420+00.7583A). Evidence for precession is detected in all four MYSOs with precession-periods and angles ranging from $66-15480 \, {\rm yr}$ and $6-36 ^\circ$ respectively. Should precession be the result of the influence from a binary companion, we infer orbital radii of $30-1800\, {\rm au} $.

We present a new radio-selected sample of PNe from the CORNISH survey. This is a radio continuum survey of the inner Galactic plane covering Galactic longitude, $10^\circ 1000 K) and located closer than 7 kpc. Within this sample is a water-maser PN with a spectral index of $-0.55\pm 0.08$, which indicates non-thermal radio emission. Such a radio-selected sample, unaffected by extinction, will be particularly useful to compare with population synthesis models and should contribute to the understanding of the formation and evolution of PNe.

What role does Galactic structure play in star formation? We have used the Herschel Hi-GAL compact-clump catalogue to examine trends in evolutionary stage over large spatial scales in the inner Galaxy. We examine the relationship between the fraction of clumps with embedded star formation (the star-forming fraction, or SFF) and other measures of star-formation activity. Based on a positive correlation between SFF and evolutionary indicators such as the luminosity-to-mass ratio, we assert that the SFF principally traces the average evolutionary state of a sample and must depend on the local fraction of rapidly-evolving, high-mass young stellar objects. The spiral-arm tangent point longitudes show small excesses in the SFF, though these can be accounted for by a small number of the most massive clusters, just 7.6% of the total number of clumps in the catalogue. This suggests that while the arms tend to be home to the Galaxy's massive clusters, the remaining 92.4% of Hi-GAL clumps in our catalogue do not show an enhancement of star formation within arms. Globally, the SFF is highest at the Galactic midplane and inner longitudes. We find no significant trend in evolutionary stage as a function of position across spiral arms at the tangent-point longitudes. This indicates that the angular offset observed between gas and stars, if coordinated by a density wave, is not evident at the clump phase; alternatively, the onset of star formation is not triggered by the spiral density wave., Comment: 14 pages, accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

A catalogue of 239 ultra-compact HII regions (UCHIIs) found in the CORNISH survey at 5 GHz and 1.5" resolution in the region $10^{\circ} < l < 65^{\circ}, ~|b| < 1^{\circ}$ is presented. This is the largest complete and well-selected sample of UCHIIs to date and provides the opportunity to explore the global and individual properties of this key state in massive star formation at multiple wavelengths. The nature of the candidates was validated, based on observational properties and calculated spectral indices, and the analysis is presented in this work. The physical sizes, luminosities and other physical properties were computed by utilising literature distances or calculating the distances whenever a value was not available. The near- and mid-infrared extended source fluxes were measured and the extinctions towards the UCHIIs were computed. The new results were combined with available data at longer wavelengths and the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) were reconstructed for 177 UCHIIs. The bolometric luminosities obtained from SED fitting are presented. By comparing the radio flux densities to previous observational epochs, we find about 5% of the sources appear to be time variable. This first high-resolution area survey of the Galactic plane shows that the total number of UCHIIs in the Galaxy is ~ 750 - a factor of 3-4 fewer than found in previous large area radio surveys. It will form the basis for future tests of models of massive star formation., Comment: 30 pages; accepted for publication in A&A on 21.03.2018

We present medium-resolution (R~7000) near-infrared echelle spectroscopic data for 36 MYSOs drawn from the Red MSX Source (RMS) survey. This is the largest sample observed at this resolution at these wavelengths of MYSOs to date. The spectra are characterized mostly by emission from hydrogen recombination lines and accretion diagnostic lines. One MYSO shows photospheric HI absorption, a comparison with spectral standards indicates that the star is an A type star with a low surface gravity, implying that the MYSOs are probably swollen, as also suggested by evolutionary calculations. An investigation of the Br$\gamma$ line profiles shows that most are in pure emission, while 13$\pm$5 % display P Cygni profiles, indicative of outflow, while less than 8$\pm$4 % have inverse P Cygni profiles, indicative of infall. These values are comparable with investigations into the optically bright Herbig Be stars, but not with those of Herbig Ae and T Tauri stars, consistent with the notion that the more massive stars undergo accretion in a different fashion than lower mass objects which are undergoing magnetospheric accretion. Accretion luminosities and rates as derived from the Br$\gamma$ line luminosities agree with results for lower mass sources, providing tentative evidence for massive star formation theories based on scaling of low-mass scenarios. We present Br$\gamma$/Br12 line profile ratios exploiting the fact that optical depth effects can be traced as a function of Doppler shift across the lines. These show that the winds of MYSOs in this sample are nearly equally split between constant, accelerating, and decelerating velocity structures. There are no trends between the types of features we see and bolometric luminosities or near-infrared colours., Comment: 30 pages, 21 figures (with appendices). Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Hi-GAL is a large-scale survey of the Galactic plane, performed with Herschel in five infrared continuum bands between 70 and 500 $\mu$m. We present a band-merged catalogue of spatially matched sources and their properties derived from fits to the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and heliocentric distances, based on the photometric catalogs presented in Molinari et al. (2016a), covering the portion of Galactic plane $-71.0^{\circ}< \ell < 67.0^{\circ}$. The band-merged catalogue contains 100922 sources with a regular SED, 24584 of which show a 70 $\mu$m counterpart and are thus considered proto-stellar, while the remainder are considered starless. Thanks to this huge number of sources, we are able to carry out a preliminary analysis of early stages of star formation, identifying the conditions that characterise different evolutionary phases on a statistically significant basis. We calculate surface densities to investigate the gravitational stability of clumps and their potential to form massive stars. We also explore evolutionary status metrics such as the dust temperature, luminosity and bolometric temperature, finding that these are higher in proto-stellar sources compared to pre-stellar ones. The surface density of sources follows an increasing trend as they evolve from pre-stellar to proto-stellar, but then it is found to decrease again in the majority of the most evolved clumps. Finally, we study the physical parameters of sources with respect to Galactic longitude and the association with spiral arms, finding only minor or no differences between the average evolutionary status of sources in the fourth and first Galactic quadrants, or between "on-arm" and "inter-arm" positions., Comment: Accepted by 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

We present the first data release of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) Plane Survey (JPS), the JPS Public Release 1 (JPSPR1). JPS is an 850-um continuum survey of six fields in the northern inner Galactic Plane in a longitude range of l=7-63, made with the Sub-millimetre Common-User Bolometer Array 2 (SCUBA-2). This first data release consists of emission maps of the six JPS regions with an average pixel-to-pixel noise of 7.19 mJy beam^-1, when smoothed over the beam, and a compact-source catalogue containing 7,813 sources. The 95 per cent completeness limits of the catalogue are estimated at 0.04 Jy beam^-1 and 0.3 Jy for the peak and integrated flux densities, respectively. The emission contained in the compact-source catalogue is 42 +- 5 per cent of the total and, apart from the large-scale (greater than 8') emission, there is excellent correspondence with features in the 500-um Herschel maps. We find that, with two-dimensional matching, 98 +- 2 per cent of sources within the fields centred at l=20, 30, 40 and 50 are associated with molecular clouds, with 91 +- 3 per cent of the l=30 and 40 sources associated with dense molecular clumps. Matching the JPS catalogue to Herschel 70-um sources, we find that 38 +- 1 per cent of sources show evidence of ongoing star formation. The images and catalogue will be a valuable resource for studies of star formation in the Galaxy and the role of environment and spiral arms in the star formation process., Comment: 22 pages, 18 figures, 4 tables. Full version of Table 3 available from http://www.canfar.phys.uvic.ca/vosui/#/JPSPR1 Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

We targeted the massive star forming region W33A using the Atacama Large Sub/Millimeter Array (ALMA) in band 6 (230 GHz) and 7 (345 GHz) to search for a sub-1000au disc around the central O-type massive young stellar object (MYSO) W33A MM1-Main. Our data achieves a resolution of ~0.2" (~500au) and resolves the central core, MM1, into multiple components and reveals complex and filamentary structures. There is strong molecular line emission covering the entire MM1 region. The kinematic signatures are inconsistent with only Keplerian rotation although we propose that the shift in the emission line centroids within ~1000au of MM1-Main could hint at an underlying compact disc with Keplerian rotation. We cannot however rule out the possibility of an unresolved binary or multiple system. A putative smaller disc could be fed by the large scale spiral `feeding filament' we detect in both gas and dust emission. We also discuss the nature of the now-resolved continuum sources.

Until recently, there have been few studies of the protostellar evolution of intermediate-mass (IM) stars, which may bridge the low- and high-mass regimes. This paper aims to investigate whether the properties of an IM protostar within the IRAS 05373+2349 embedded cluster are similar to that of low- and/or high-mass protostars. We carried out Very Large Array as well as Combined Array for Research in Millimeter Astronomy continuum and 12CO(J=1-0) observations, which uncover seven radio continuum sources (VLA 1-7). The spectral index of VLA 2, associated with the IM protostar is consistent with an ionised stellar wind or jet. The source VLA 3 is coincident with previously observed H2 emission line objects aligned in the north-south direction (P.A. -20 to -12 deg), which may be either an ionised jet emanating from VLA 2 or (shock-)ionised cavity walls in the large-scale outflow from VLA 2. The position angle between VLA 2 and 3 is slightly misaligned with the large-scale outflow we map at ~5-arcsec resolution in 12CO (P.A. ~30 deg), which in the case of a jet suggests precession. The emission from the mm core associated with VLA 2 is also detected; we estimate its mass to be 12-23 Msun, depending on the contribution from ionised gas. Furthermore, the large-scale outflow has properties intermediate between outflows from low- and high-mass young stars. Therefore, we conclude that the IM protostar within IRAS 05373+2349 is phenomenologically as well as quantitatively intermediate between the low- and high-mass domains., Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures and 4 tables. Accepted by MNRAS

We present large-scale trends in the distribution of star-forming objects revealed by the Hi-GAL survey. As a simple metric probing the prevalence of star formation in Hi-GAL sources, we define the fraction of the total number of Hi-GAL sources with a 70-micron counterpart as the "star-forming fraction" or SFF. The mean SFF in the inner galactic disc (3.1 kpc < R_GC < 8.6 kpc) is 25%. Despite an apparent pile-up of source numbers at radii associated with spiral arms, the SFF shows no significant deviations at these radii, indicating that the arms do not affect the star-forming productivity of dense clumps either via physical triggering processes or through the statistical effects of larger source samples associated with the arms. Within this range of Galactocentric radii, we find that the SFF declines with R_GC at a rate of -0.026 +/- 0.002 per kiloparsec, despite the dense gas mass fraction having been observed to be constant in the inner Galaxy. This suggests that the SFF may be weakly dependent on one or more large-scale physical properties of the Galaxy, such as metallicity, radiation field, pressure or shear, such that the dense sub-structures of molecular clouds acquire some internal properties inherited from their environment., Comment: accepted for publication in MNRAS, 8 pages, 6 figures

Radio continuum observations using the Australia telescope compact array at 5.5, 9.0, 17.0 and 22.8 GHz have detected free-free emission associated with 45 of 49 massive young stellar objects and HII regions. Of these, 26 sources are classified as ionized jets (12 of which are candidates), 2 as ambiguous jets or disc winds, 1 as a disc-wind, 14 as HII regions and 2 were unable to be categorised. Classification as ionized jets is based upon morphology, radio flux and spectral index, in conjunction with previous observational results at other wavelengths. Radio-luminosity and momentum are found to scale with bolometric luminosity in the same way as low-mass jets, indicating a common mechanism for jet production across all masses. In 13 of the jets, we see associated non-thermal/optically-thin lobes resulting from shocks either internal to the jet and/or at working surfaces. Ten jets display non-thermal (synchrotron emission) spectra in their lobes, with an average spectral index of -0.55 consistent with Fermi acceleration in shocks. This shows that magnetic fields are present, in agreement with models of jet formation incorporating magnetic fields. Since the production of collimated radio jets is associated with accretion processes, the results presented in this paper support the picture of disc-mediated accretion for the formation of massive stars with an upper-limit on the jet phase lasting approximately $6.5 \times 10^4 yr$. Typical mass loss rates in the jet are found to be $1.4 \times 10^{-5} M_\odot yr^{-1}$ with associated momentum rates of the order $(1-2) \times 10^{-2} M_\odot km s^{-1} yr^{-1}$.

(Abridged) We present the first public release of high-quality data products (DR1) from Hi-GAL, the {\em Herschel} infrared Galactic Plane Survey. Hi-GAL is the keystone of a suite of continuum Galactic Plane surveys from the near-IR to the radio, and covers five wavebands at 70, 160, 250, 350 and 500 micron, encompassing the peak of the spectral energy distribution of cold dust for 8 < T < 50K. This first Hi-GAL data release covers the inner Milky Way in the longitude range 68{\deg} > l > -70{\deg} in a |b|<1{\deg} latitude strip. Photometric maps have been produced with the ROMAGAL pipeline, that optimally capitalizes on the excellent sensitivity and stability of the bolometer arrays of the {\em Herschel} PACS and SPIRE photometric cameras, to deliver images of exquisite quality and dynamical range, absolutely calibrated with {\em Planck} and {\em IRAS}, and recovering extended emission at all wavelengths and all spatial scales. The compact source catalogues have been generated with the CuTEx algorithm, specifically developed to optimize source detection and extraction in the extreme conditions of intense and spatially varying background that are found in the Galactic Plane in the thermal infrared. Hi-GAL DR1 images will be accessible via a dedicated web-based image cutout service. The DR1 Compact Source Catalogues are delivered as single-band photometric lists containing, in addition to source position, peak and integrated flux and source sizes, a variety of parameters useful to assess the quality and reliability of the extracted sources, caveats and hints to help this assessment are provided. Flux completeness limits in all bands are determined from extensive synthetic source experiments and depend on the specific line of sight along the Galactic Plane. Hi-GAL DR1 catalogues contain 123210, 308509, 280685, 160972 and 85460 compact sources in the five bands, respectively., Comment: Astronomy & Astrophysics, accepted

We present early results from the JCMT Plane Survey (JPS), which has surveyed the northern inner Galactic plane between longitudes l=7 and l=63 degrees in the 850-{\mu}m continuum with SCUBA-2, as part of the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope Legacy Survey programme. Data from the l=30 degree survey region, which contains the massive star-forming regions W43 and G29.96, are analysed after approximately 40% of the observations had been completed. The pixel-to-pixel noise is found to be 19 mJy/beam, after a smooth over the beam area, and the projected equivalent noise levels in the final survey are expected to be around 10 mJy/beam. An initial extraction of compact sources was performed using the FellWalker method resulting in the detection of 1029 sources above a 5-{\sigma} surface-brightness threshold. The completeness limits in these data are estimated to be around 0.2 Jy/beam (peak flux density) and 0.8 Jy (integrated flux density) and are therefore probably already dominated by source confusion in this relatively crowded section of the survey. The flux densities of extracted compact sources are consistent with those of matching detections in the shallower ATLASGAL survey. We analyse the virial and evolutionary state of the detected clumps in the W43 star-forming complex and find that they appear younger than the Galactic-plane average., Comment: Accepted by MNRAS

We have observed 99 mid-infrared-bright, massive young stellar objects and compact HII regions drawn from the Red MSX source (RMS) survey in the J=3$-$2 transition of $^{12}$CO and $^{13}$CO, using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. 89 targets are within 6 kpc of the Sun, covering a representative range of luminosities and core masses. These constitute a relatively unbiased sample of bipolar molecular outflows associated with massive star formation. Of these, 59, 17 and 13 sources (66, 19 and 15 percent) are found to have outflows, show some evidence of outflow, and have no evidence of outflow, respectively. The time-dependent parameters of the high-velocity molecular flows are calculated using a spatially variable dynamic timescale. The canonical correlations between the outflow parameters and source luminosity are recovered and shown to scale with those of low-mass sources. For coeval star formation we find the scaling is consistent with all the protostars in an embedded cluster providing the outflow force, with massive stars up to $\sim$30 M$_{\odot}$ generating outflows. Taken at face value, the results support the model of a scaled-up version of the accretion-related outflow-generation mechanism associated with discs and jets in low-mass objects with time-averaged accretion rates of $\sim$10$^{-3}$ M$_{\odot}$ yr$^{-1}$ onto the cores. However, we also suggest an alternative model, in which the molecular outflow dynamics are dominated by the entrained mass and are unrelated to the details of the acceleration mechanism. We find no evidence that outflows contribute significantly to the turbulent kinetic energy of the surrounding dense cores.

We used Herschel Hi-GAL survey data to determine whether massive young stellar objects (MYSOs) are resolved at 70$\mu$m and to study their envelope density distribution. Our analysis of three relatively isolated sources in the l=30{\deg} and l=59{\deg} Galactic fields show that the objects are partially resolved at 70$\mu$m. The Herschel Hi-GAL survey data have a high scan velocity which makes unresolved and partially resolved sources appear elongated in the 70$\mu$m images. We analysed the two scan directions separately and examine the intensity profile perpendicular to the scan direction. Spherically symmetric radiative transfer models with a power law density distribution were used to study the circumstellar matter distribution. Single dish sub-mm data were also included to study how different spatial information affects the fitted density distribution. The density distribution which best fits both the 70$\mu$m intensity profile and SED has an average index of ~0.5. This index is shallower than expected and is probably due to the dust emission from bipolar outflow cavity walls not accounted for in the spherical models. We conclude that 2D axisymmetric models and Herschel images at low scan speeds are needed to better constrain the matter distribution around MYSOs., Comment: 11 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS

By matching infrared-selected, massive young stellar objects (MYSOs) and compact HII regions in the RMS survey to massive clumps found in the submillimetre ATLASGAL survey, we have identified ~1000 embedded young massive stars between 280\degr < $\ell$ < 350\degr and 10degr < $\ell$ < 60\degr with |b|<1.5degr. Combined with an existing sample of radio-selected methanol masers and compact HII regions, the result is a catalogue of ~1700 massive stars embedded within ~1300 clumps located across the inner Galaxy, containing three observationally distinct subsamples, methanol-maser, MYSO and HII-region associations, covering the most important tracers of massive star formation, thought to represent key stages of evolution. We find that massive star formation is strongly correlated with the regions of highest column density in spherical, centrally condensed clumps. We find no significant differences between the three samples in clump structure or the relative location of the embedded stars, which suggests that the structure of a clump is set before the onset of star formation, and changes little as the embedded object evolves towards the main sequence. There is a strong linear correlation between clump mass and bolometric luminosity, with the most massive stars forming in the most massive clumps. We find that the MYSO and HII-region subsamples are likely to cover a similar range of evolutionary stages and that the majority are near the end of their main accretion phase. We find few infrared-bright MYSOs associated with the most massive clumps, probably due to very short pre-main sequence lifetimes in the most luminous sources., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS: 33 pages, 24 figures and 9 tables. Full versions of Fig. 3 and Tables 1, 3, 6 and 7 will only be available in electronic form via CDS. The resolution of Figs. 1, 5, 7 and 21 have been reduced but a higher resolution version of the paper is available upon request

Abridged: We have used the well-selected sample of ~1750 embedded, young, massive stars identified by the RMS survey to investigate the Galactic distribution of recent massive star formation. We describe the various methods used to assign distances extracted from the literature, and solve the distance ambiguities towards ~200 sources located within the Solar circle using archival HI data. These distances are used to calculate bolometric luminosities and estimate the survey completeness (~2x10^4 lsun). In total, we calculate the distance and luminosity of ~1650 sources, one third of which are above the survey's completeness threshold. Examination of the sample's longitude, latitude, radial velocities and mid-infrared images has identified ~120 small groups of sources, many of which are associated with well known star formation complexes, such as W43, W49 and W51. We compare the positional distribution of the sample with the expected locations of the spiral arms, assuming a model of the Galaxy consisting of four gaseous arms. The distribution of young massive stars in the Milky Way is spatially correlated with the spiral arms, with strong peaks in the source position and luminosity distributions at the arms' Galactocentric radii. The overall source and luminosity surface densities are both well correlated with the surface density of the molecular gas, which suggests that the massive star formation rate per unit molecular mass is approximately constant across the Galaxy. We estimate the total luminosity of the embedded massive star population to be ~0.76x10^8 lsun, 30% of which is associated with the ten most active star forming complexes. We measure the scale height as a function of Galactocentric distance and find that it increases only modestly from ~20-30 pc between 4 and 8 kpc, but much more rapidly at larger distances., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Paper consists of 17 pages, four table and 11 figures. The full versions of Tables 1,2 and 3 and Figures 1 and 4 will only be available from CDS

We present medium resolution ($R\approx5300$) $K$-band integral field spectroscopy of six MYSOs. The targets are selected from the RMS survey, and we used the NIFS on the Gemini North telescope. The data show various spectral line features including Br$\gamma$, CO, H$_2$, and \mbox{He\,{\sc i}}. The Br$\gamma$ line is detected in emission in all objects with $v_\mathrm{FWHM}\sim100$ -- 200 kms$^{-1}$. V645 Cyg shows a high-velocity P-Cygni profile between -800 kms$^{-1}$ and -300 kms$^{-1}$. We performed three-dimensional spectroastrometry to diagnose the circumstellar environment in the vicinity of the central stars using the Br$\gamma$ line. We measured the centroids of the velocity components with sub-mas precision. The centroids allow us to discriminate the blueshifted and redshifted components in a roughly east--west direction in both IRAS 18151--1208 and S106 in Br$\gamma$. This lies almost perpendicular to observed larger scale outflows. We conclude, given the widths of the lines and the orientation of the spectroastrometric signature, that our results trace a disc wind in both IRAS 18151--1208 and S106. The CO $\nu=2-0$ absorption lines at low $J$ transitions are detected in IRAS 18151--1208 and AFGL 2136. We analysed the velocity structure of the neutral gas discs. In IRAS 18151--1208, the absorption centroids of the blueshifted and redshifted components are separated in a direction of north-east to south-west, nearly perpendicular to that of the larger scale $H_2$ jet. The position-velocity relations of these objects can be reproduced with central masses of 30 $M_{\sun}$ for IRAS 18151--1208 and 20 $M_{\sun}$ for AFGL 2136. We also detect CO $\nu=2-0$ bandhead emission in IRAS 18151--1208, S106 and V645 Cyg. The results can be fitted reasonably with a Keplerian rotation model, with masses of 15, 20 and 20 $M_{\sun}$ respectively., Comment: 17 pages, 10 figures, accepted by MNRAS

We present the Red MSX Source (RMS) Survey, the largest statistically selected catalog of young massive protostars and HII regions to date. We outline the construction of the catalog using mid and near infrared color selection, as well as the detailed follow up work at other wavelengths, and at higher spatial resolution in the infrared. We show that within the adopted selection bounds we are more than 90% complete for the massive protostellar population, with a positional accuracy of the exciting source of better than 2 arcseconds. We briefly summarize some of the results that can be obtained from studying the properties of the objects in the catalog as a whole, and find evidence that the most massive stars form: (i) preferentially nearer the Galactic centre than the anti-centre; (ii) in the most heavily reddened environments, suggestive of high accretion rates; and (iii) from the most massive cloud cores., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJS. The full version of Table 1 will be made available electronically, but the most up-to-date version of our database will always be that accessible at http://rms.leeds.ac.uk

We present a complete sample of molecular clumps containing compact and ultra-compact (UC) HII regions between \ell=10\degr and 60\degr\ and $|b|<1\degr, identified by combining the the ATLASGAL submm and CORNISH radio continuum surveys with visual examination of archival infrared data. Our sample is complete to optically thin, compact and UCHII regions driven by a zero age main sequence star of spectral type B0 or earlier embedded within a 1,000 Msun clump. In total we identify 213 compact and UCHII regions, associated with 170 clumps. Unambiguous kinematic distances are derived for these clumps and used to estimate their masses and physical sizes, as well as the Lyman continuum fluxes and sizes of their embedded HII regions. We find a clear lower envelope for the surface density of molecular clumps hosting massive star formation of 0.05 g cm^{-2}, which is consistent with a similar sample of clumps associated with 6.7 GHz masers. The mass of the most massive embedded stars is closely correlated with the mass of their natal clump. Young B stars appear to be significantly more luminous in the ultraviolet than predicted by current stellar atmosphere models. The properties of clumps associated with compact and UCHII regions are very similar to those associated with 6.7 GHz methanol masers and we speculate that there is little evolution in the structure of the molecular clumps between these two phases. Finally, we identify a significant peak in the surface density of compact and UCHII regions associated with the W49A star-forming complex, noting that this complex is truly one of the most massive and intense regions of star formation in the Galaxy., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Paper consists of 29 pages, 26 figures and 4 tables. The resolution of Figures 21 and 25 has been reduced to comply with file size restrictions. Full versions of Figures 11 and 12 and Tables 3 and 4 will only be available in the electronic version of the journal and through CDS

Near-infrared H- and K-band spectra are presented for 247 objects, selected from the Red MSX Source (RMS) survey as potential young stellar objects (YSOs). 195 (~80%) of the targets are YSOs, of which 131 are massive YSOs (L_BOL > 5x10^3 L_solar), M > 8M_solar. This is the largest spectroscopic study of massive YSOs to date, providing a valuable resource for the study of massive star formation. In this paper we present our exploratory analysis of the data. The YSOs observed have a wide range of embeddedness (2.7 < A_V < 114), demonstrating that this study covers minimally obscured objects right through to very red, dusty sources. Almost all YSOs show some evidence for emission lines, though there is a wide variety of observed properties. The most commonly detected lines are Brgamma, H_2, fluorescent FeII, CO bandhead, [FeII] and HeI 2-1 2^1S-2^1P, in order of frequency of occurrence. In total, ~40% of the YSOs display either fluorescent FeII 1.6878um or CO bandhead emission (or both), indicative of a circumstellar disc; however, no correlation of the strength of these lines with bolometric luminosity was found. We also find that ~60% of the sources exhibit [FeII] or H_2 emission, indicating the presence of an outflow. Three quarters of all sources have Brgamma in emission. A good correlation with bolometric luminosity was observed for both the Brgamma and H_2 emission line strengths, covering 1 L_solar< L_BOL < 3.5x10^5 L_solar. This suggests that the emission mechanism for these lines is the same for low-, intermediate-, and high-mass YSOs, i.e. high-mass YSOs appear to resemble scaled-up versions of low-mass YSOs., Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS

Massive stars play an important role in many areas of astrophysics, but numerous details regarding their formation remain unclear. In this paper we present and analyse high resolution (R ~ 30,000) near-infrared 2.3 micron spectra of 20 massive young stellar objects from the RMS database, in the largest such study of CO first overtone bandhead emission to date. We fit the emission under the assumption it originates from a circumstellar disc in Keplerian rotation. We explore three approaches to modelling the physical conditions within the disc - a disc heated mainly via irradiation from the central star, a disc heated mainly via viscosity, and a disc in which the temperature and density are described analytically. We find that the models described by heating mechanisms are inappropriate because they do not provide good fits to the CO emission spectra. We therefore restrict our analysis to the analytic model, and obtain good fits to all objects that possess sufficiently strong CO emission, suggesting circumstellar discs are the source of this emission. On average, the temperature and density structure of the discs correspond to geometrically thin discs, spread across a wide range of inclinations. Essentially all the discs are located within the dust sublimation radius, providing strong evidence that the CO emission originates close to the central protostar, on astronomical unit scales. In addition, we show that the objects in our sample appear no different to the general population of MYSOs in the RMS database, based on their near- and mid-infrared colours. The combination of observations of a large sample of MYSOs with CO bandhead emission and our detailed modelling provide compelling evidence of the presence of small scale gaseous discs around such objects, supporting the scenario in which massive stars form via disc accretion., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

The CORNISH project is the highest resolution radio continuum survey of the Galactic plane to date. It is the 5 GHz radio continuum part of a series of multi-wavelength surveys that focus on the northern GLIMPSE region (10 deg < l < 65 deg), observed by the Spitzer satellite in the mid-infrared. Observations with the Very Large Array in B and BnA configurations have yielded a 1.5" resolution Stokes I map with a root-mean-squared noise level better than 0.4 mJy/beam. Here we describe the data-processing methods and data characteristics, and present a new, uniform catalogue of compact radio-emission. This includes an implementation of automatic deconvolution that provides much more reliable imaging than standard CLEANing. A rigorous investigation of the noise characteristics and reliability of source detection has been carried out. We show that the survey is optimised to detect emission on size scales up to 14" and for unresolved sources the catalogue is more than 90 percent complete at a flux density of 3.9 mJy. We have detected 3,062 sources above a 7-sigma detection limit and present their ensemble properties. The catalogue is highly reliable away from regions containing poorly-sampled extended emission, which comprise less than two percent of the survey area. Imaging problems have been mitigated by down-weighting the shortest spacings and potential artefacts flagged via a rigorous manual inspection with reference to the Spitzer infrared data. We present images of the most common source types found: regions, planetary nebulae and radio-galaxies. The CORNISH data and catalogue are available online at http://cornish.leeds.ac.uk, Comment: 25 pages, 22 figures. To appear in ApJ. Sup

We describe the motivation, design and implementation of the CORNISH survey, an arcsecond resolution radio continuum survey of the inner Galactic plane at 5 GHz using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA). It is a blind survey co-ordinated with the northern Spitzer GLIMPSE I region covering 10 deg < l < 65 deg and |b| < 1 deg at similar resolution. We discuss in detail the strategy that we employed to control the shape of the synthesised beam across this survey that covers a wide range of fairly low declinations. Two snapshots separated by 4 hours in hour angle kept the beam elongation to less that 1.5 over 75% of the survey area and less than 2 over 98% of the survey. The prime scientific motivation is to provide an unbiased survey for ultra-compact HII regions to study this key phase in massive star formation. A sensitivity around 2 mJy will allow the automatic distinction between radio loud and quiet mid-IR sources found in the Spitzer surveys. This survey has many legacy applications beyond star formation including evolved stars, active stars and binaries, and extragalactic sources. The CORNISH survey for compact ionized sources complements other Galactic plane surveys that target diffuse and non-thermal sources as well as atomic and molecular phases to build up a complete picture of the ISM in the Galaxy., Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures. Accepted for publication in PASP (16th-August-2012)

The H2O Southern Galactic Plane Survey (HOPS) has mapped a 100 degree strip of the Galactic plane (-70deg > l > 30deg, |b| < 0.5deg) using the 22-m Mopra antenna at 12-mm wavelengths. Observations were conducted in on-the-fly mode using the Mopra spectrometer (MOPS), targeting water masers, thermal molecular emission and radio-recombination lines. Foremost among the thermal lines are the 23 GHz transitions of NH3 J,K = (1,1) and (2,2), which trace the densest parts of molecular clouds (n > 10^4 cm^{-3}). In this paper we present the NH3 (1,1) and (2,2) data, which have a resolution of 2 arcmin and cover a velocity range of +/-200 km/s. The median sensitivity of the NH3 data-cubes is sigma_Tmb = 0.20 +/1 0.06 K. For the (1,1) transition this sensitivity equates to a 3.2 kpc distance limit for detecting a 20 K, 400 Msun cloud at the 5-sigma level. Similar clouds of mass 5,000 Msun would be detected as far as the Galactic centre, while 30,000 Msun clouds would be seen across the Galaxy. We have developed an automatic emission finding procedure based on the ATNF DUCHAMP software and have used it to create a new catalogue of 669 dense molecular clouds. The catalogue is 100 percent complete at the 5-sigma detection limit (Tmb = 1.0 K). A preliminary analysis of the ensemble cloud properties suggest that the near kinematic distances are favoured. The cloud positions are consistent with current models of the Galaxy containing a long bar. Combined with other Galactic plane surveys this new molecular-line dataset constitutes a key tool for examining Galactic structure and evolution. Data-cubes, spectra and catalogues are available to the community via the HOPS website., Comment: 22 pages, 19 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS (25-July-2012)

We present a study of the kinematical properties of a small sample of nearby near-infrared bright massive and intermediate mass young stellar objects using emission lines sensitive to discs and winds. We show for the first time that the broad ($\sim500$kms$^{-1}$) symmetric line wings on the HI Brackett series lines are due to Stark broadening or electron scattering, rather than pure Doppler broadening due to high speed motion. The results are consistent with the presence of a very dense circumstellar environment. In addition, many of these lines show evidence for weak line self-absorption, suggestive of a wind or disc-wind origin for that part of the absorbing material. The weakness of the self-absorption suggests a large opening angle for such an outflow. We also study the fluorescent 1.688$\mu$m FeII line, which is sensitive to dense material. We fitted a Keplerian disc model to this line, and find reasonable fits in all bar one case, in agreement with previous finding for classical Be stars that fluorescent iron transitions are reasonable disc tracers. Overall the picture is one in which these stars still have accretion discs, with a very dense inner circumstellar environment which may be tracing either the inner regions of a disc, or of a stellar wind, and in which ionised outflow is also present. The similarity with lower mass stars is striking, suggesting that at least in this mass range they form in a similar fashion., Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Massive stars form whilst they are still embedded in dense envelopes. As a result, the roles of rotation, mass loss and accretion in massive star formation are not well understood. This study evaluates the source of the Q-band, lambda=19.5 microns, emission of massive young stellar objects (MYSOs). This allows us to determine the relative importance of rotation and outflow activity in shaping the circumstellar environments of MYSOs on 1000 AU scales. We obtained diffraction limited mid-infrared images of a sample of 20 MYSOs using the VLT/VISIR and Subaru/COMICS instruments. For these 8 m class telescopes and the sample selected, the diffraction limit, ~0.6", corresponds to approximately 1000 AU. We compare the images and the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) observed to a 2D, axis-symmetric dust radiative transfer model that reproduces VLTI/MIDI observations of the MYSO W33A. We vary the inclination, mass infall rate, and outflow opening angle to simultaneously recreate the behaviour of the sample of MYSOs in the spatial and spectral domains. The mid-IR emission of 70 percent of the MYSOs is spatially resolved. In the majority of cases, the spatial extent of their emission and their SEDs can be reproduced by the W33A model featuring an in-falling, rotating dusty envelope with outflow cavities. There is independent evidence that most of the sources which are not fit by the model are associated with ultracompact HII regions and are thus more evolved. We find that, in general, the diverse 20 micron morphology of MYSOs can be attributed to warm dust in the walls of outflow cavities seen at different inclinations. This implies that the warm dust in the outflow cavity walls dominates the Q-band emission of MYSOs. In turn, this emphasises that outflows are an ubiquitous feature of massive star formation., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A. The images in this version have been compressed. A high resolution version is available on request

The ESO Public Survey VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea (VVV) started in 2010. VVV targets 562 sq. deg in the Galactic bulge and an adjacent plane region and is expected to run for ~5 years. In this paper we describe the progress of the survey observations in the first observing season, the observing strategy and quality of the data obtained. The observations are carried out on the 4-m VISTA telescope in the ZYJHKs filters. In addition to the multi-band imaging the variability monitoring campaign in the Ks filter has started. Data reduction is carried out using the pipeline at the Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit. The photometric and astrometric calibration is performed via the numerous 2MASS sources observed in each pointing. The first data release contains the aperture photometry and astrometric catalogues for 348 individual pointings in the ZYJHKs filters taken in the 2010 observing season. The typical image quality is ~0.9-1.0". The stringent photometric and image quality requirements of the survey are satisfied in 100% of the JHKs images in the disk area and 90% of the JHKs images in the bulge area. The completeness in the Z and Y images is 84% in the disk, and 40% in the bulge. The first season catalogues contain 1.28x10^8 stellar sources in the bulge and 1.68x10^8 in the disk area detected in at least one of the photometric bands. The combined, multi-band catalogues contain more than 1.63x10^8 stellar sources. About 10% of these are double detections due to overlapping adjacent pointings. These overlapping multiple detections are used to characterise the quality of the data. The images in the JHKs bands extend typically ~4 mag deeper than 2MASS. The magnitude limit and photometric quality depend strongly on crowding in the inner Galactic regions. The astrometry for Ks=15-18 mag has rms ~35-175 mas., Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics (Section 14: Catalogs and data)

We present high-resolution HI data obtained using the Australia Telescope Compact Array to resolve the near/far distance ambiguities towards a sample of compact HII regions from the Red MSX Source (RMS) survey. The high resolution data are complemented with lower resolution archival HI data extracted from the Southern and VLA Galactic Plane surveys. We resolve the distance ambiguity for nearly all of the 105 sources where the continuum was strong enough to allow analysis of the HI absorption line structure. This represents another step in the determination of distances to the total RMS sample, which with over 1,000 massive young stellar objects and compact HII regions, is the largest and most complete sample of its kind. The full sample will allow the distribution of massive star formation in the Galaxy to be examined., Comment: Accepted by MNRAS. This paper consists of 15 pages and contains 10 figures and 5 tables

The Red MSX Source (RMS) survey has identified a sample of ~1200 massive young stellar objects (MYSOs), compact and ultra compact HII regions from a sample of ~2000 MSX and 2MASS colour selected sources. We have used the 100 m Green Bank telescope to search for 22-24 GHz water maser and ammonia (1,1), (2,2) and (3,3) emission towards ~600 RMS sources located within the northern Galactic plane. We have identified 308 H2O masers which corresponds to an overall detection rate of ~50%. Abridged: We detect ammonia emission towards 479 of these massive young stars, which corresponds to ~80%. Ammonia is an excellent probe of high density gas allowing us to measure key parameters such as gas temperatures, opacities, and column densities, as well as providing an insight into the gas kinematics. The average kinetic temperature, FWHM line width and total NH3 column density for the sample are approximately 22 K, 2 km/s and 2x10^{15} cm^{-2}, respectively. We find that the NH3 (1,1) line width and kinetic temperature are correlated with luminosity and finding no underlying dependence of these parameters on the evolutionary phase of the embedded sources, we conclude that the observed trends in the derived parameters are more likely to be due to the energy output of the central source and/or the line width-clump mass relationship. The velocities of the peak H2O masers and the NH3 emission are in excellent agreement with each other, which would strongly suggest an association between the dense gas and the maser emission. Moreover, we find the bolometric luminosity of the embedded source and the isotropic luminosity of the H2O maser are also correlated. We conclude from the correlations of the cloud and water maser velocities and the bolometric and maser luminosity that there is a strong dynamical relationship between the embedded young massive star and the H2O maser., Comment: 17 pages and 17 figures and 8 tables. Tables\,2 and 5 and full versions of Figs. 3 and 7 are only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.125.5) or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/

We present first results of the H_2O Southern Galactic Plane Survey (HOPS), using the Mopra radiotelescope with a broad band backend and a beam size of about 2'. We have observed 100 square degrees of the southern Galactic plane at 12mm (19.5 to 27.5GHz), including spectral line emission from water masers, multiple metastable transitions of ammonia, cyanoacetylene, methanol and radio recombination lines. In this paper, we report on the characteristics of the survey and water maser emission. We find 540 water masers, of which 334 are new detections. The strongest maser is 3933Jy and the weakest is 0.7Jy, with 62 masers over 100Jy. In 14 maser sites, the spread in velocity of the water maser emission exceeds 100km/s. In one region, the water maser velocities are separated by 351.3km/s. The rms noise levels are typically between 1-2Jy, with 95% of the survey under 2Jy. We estimate completeness limits of 98% at around 8.4Jy and 50% at around 5.5Jy. We estimate that there are between 800 and 1500 water masers in the Galaxy that are detectable in a survey with similar completeness limits to HOPS. We report possible masers in NH_3 (11,9) and (8,6) emission towards G19.61-0.23 and in the NH_3 (3,3) line towards G23.33-0.30., Comment: accepted for publication in MNRAS

The benefits for the e-MERLIN and EVN arrays of using antennae at the satellite communication station at Goonhilly in Cornwall are discussed. The location of this site - new to astronomy - will provide an almost equal distribution of long baselines in the east-west- and north-south directions, and opens up the possibility to get significantly improved observations of equatorial fields with e-MERLIN. These additional baselines will improve the sensitivity on a set of critical spatial scales and will increase the angular resolution of e-MERLIN by a factor of two. e-MERLIN observations, including many allocated under the e-MERLIN Legacy programme, will benefit from the enhanced angular resolution and imaging capability especially for sources close to or below the celestial equator (where ESO facilities such as ALMA will operate) of including the Goonhilly telescopes. Furthermore, the baselines formed between Goonhilly and the existing stations will close the gap between the baselines of e-MERLIN and those of the European VLBI Network (EVN) and therefore enhance the legacy value of e-MERLIN datasets., Comment: 10 pages, 2 figues

A consortium of universities has recently been formed with the goal of using the decommissioned telecommunications infrastructure at the Goonhilly Earth Station in Cornwall, UK, for astronomical purposes. One particular goal is the introduction of one or more of the ~30-metre parabolic antennas into the existing e-MERLIN radio interferometer. This article introduces this scheme and presents some simulations which quantify the improvements that would be brought to the e-MERLIN system. These include an approximate doubling of the spatial resolution of the array, an increase in its N-S extent with strong implications for imaging the most well-studied equatorial fields, accessible to ESO facilities including ALMA. It also increases the overlap between the e-MERLIN array and the European VLBI Network. We also discuss briefly some niche science areas in which an e-MERLIN array which included a receptor at Goonhilly would be potentially world-leading, in addition to enhancing the existing potential of e-MERLIN in its role as a Square Kilometer Array pathfinder instrument., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, to appear in the proceedings of "Astronomy with megastructures: Joint science with the E-ELT and SKA", 10-14 May 2010, Crete, Greece (Eds: Isobel Hook, Dimitra Rigopoulou, Steve Rawlings and Aris Karastergiou)

We apply mid-infrared spectro-interferometry to the massive young stellar object CRL2136. The observations were performed with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer and the MIDI instrument at a 42m baseline probing angular scales of 50 milli-arcseconds. We model the observed visibilities in parallel with diffraction-limited images at both 24.5micron and in the N-band (with resolutions of 0.6" and 0.3", respectively), as well as the spectral energy distribution. The arcsec-scale spatial information reveals the well-resolved emission from the dusty envelope. By simultaneously modelling the spatial and spectral data, we find that the bulk of the dust emission occurs at several dust sublimation radii (approximately 170 AU). This reproduces the high mid-infrared fluxes and at the same time the low visibilities observed in the MIDI data for wavelengths longward of 8.5micron. However, shortward of this wavelength the visibility data show a sharp up-turn indicative of compact emission. We discuss various potential sources of this emission. We exclude a dust disk being responsible for the observed spectral imprint on the visibilities. A cool supergiant star and an accretion disk are considered and both shown to be viable origins of the compact mid-infrared emission. We propose that CRL2136 is embedded in a dusty envelope, which truncates at several times the dust sublimation radius. A dust torus is manifest in the equatorial region. We find that the spectro-interferometric N-band signal can be reproduced by either a gaseous disk or a bloated central star. If the disk extends to the stellar surface, it accretes at a rate of 3.0 10^(-3) Msun/yr., Comment: Accepted for publication in A&A

The supersonic stellar and disk winds possessed by massive young stellar objects will produce shocks when they collide against the interior of a pre-existing bipolar cavity (resulting from an earlier phase of jet activity). The shock heated gas emits thermal X-rays which may be observable by spaceborne observa- tories such as the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Hydrodynamical models are used to explore the wind-cavity interaction. Radiative transfer calculations are performed on the simulation output to produce synthetic X-ray observations, allowing constraints to be placed on model parameters through comparisons with observations. The model reveals an intricate interplay between the inflowing and outflowing material and is successful in reproducing the observed X-ray count rates from massive young stellar objects., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings for "The multi-wavelength view of hot, massive stars"; 39th Li\`ege Int. Astroph. Coll., 12-16 July 2010