Dynamics of Dense Cores in the Perseus Molecular Cloud

Understand

We survey the kinematics of over one hundred and fifty candidate (and potentially star-forming) dense cores in the Perseus molecular cloud with pointed N2H+(1-0) and simultaneous C18O(2-1) observations.

• Our detection rate of N2H+ is 62%, rising to 84% for JCMT SCUBA-selected targets.
• In agreement with previous observations, we find that the dense N2H+ targets tend to display nearly thermal linewidths, particularly those which appear to be starless (using Spitzer data), indicating turbulent support on the small scales of molecular clouds is minimal.
• For those N2H+ targets which have an associated SCUBA dense core, we find their internal motions are more than sufficient to provide support against the gravitational force on the cores.