Physical processes in high-mass star formation

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Henrik Beuther
• Subject Area: Astrophysics and Astronomy
• Term: from 2003 to 2010
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5394139

• Final Report Year: 2010

Final Report Abstract

The scientific goals of this Emmy-Noether group targeted the understanding of the physical and chemical processes taking place during the earliest stages of high-mass star formation. Since these processes take place at low temperatures at on average large distances, (sub)mm interferometers were the observatories of choice for this undertaking. Working in this field and educating students about it is setting the stage for a successful use of the upcoming Atacama Large Millimeter Array in the next decade. The scientific topics studied within the framework of this Emmy-Noether group were very broad, covering as diverse questions as the initial conditions of high-mass star formation, disk properties, fragmentation of high-mass gas clumps leading to the emergence of the initial mass function, or the chemical evolution of such regions.

Publications

• Caught in the act: The onset of massive star formation. In: Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2005, Vol. 634, L185-L188
  H. Beuther, T.K. Sridharan, M. Saito
  
• Submillimeter Array 440µm/690GHz line and continuum observations of Orion-KL. In: Astrophysical Journal, 2006, Vol. 636, 323-331
  H. Beuther, Q. Zhang, M.J. Reid, T.R. Hunter, M. Gurwell, D. Wilner, J.-H. Zhao, H. Shinnaga, E. Keto, P.T.P. Ho, J.M. Moran, S.-Y Liu
  
• The high-mass star-forming region IRAS18182-1433. In: Astronomy and Astrophysics, 2006, Vol. 454, 221-231
  H. Beuther, Q. Zhang, T.K. Sridharan, C.-F. Lee, L.A. Zapata
  
• Dust and gas emission in the prototypical hot core G29.96-0.02 at sub-arcsecond resolution. In: Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2007, Vol. 468, 1045-1056
  H. Beuther, Q. Zhang, E.A. Bergin, T.K. Sridharan, T.R. Hunter, S. Leurini
  
• Outflow and dense gas emission from massive Infrared Dark Clouds. In: Astrophysical Journal, 2007, Vol. 668, 348-358
  H. Beuther & T.K. Sridharan
  
• The Protostar in the massive Infrared Dark Cloud IRDC18223-3. In: Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2007, Vol. 656, L85-L88
  H. Beuther & J. Steinacker
  
• Ethynyl (C2H) in massive star formation: Tracing the initial conditions? In: Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2008, Vol. 675, L33-L36
  H. Beuther, D. Semenov, Th. Henning, H. Linz
  
• Kinematics of a hot massive accretion disk candidate. In: Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2008, Vol. 673, L55-L58
  H. Beuther & A.J. Walsh
  
• Millimeter Interferometry of W3IRS5: A Trapezium in its making. In: Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2008, Vol. 490, 213-222
  J. A. Rodon, H. Beuther, S.T. Megeath, F.F.S van der Tak
  
• Chemical diversity in high-mass star formation. In: Astronomical Journal, 2009, 137, 406-418
  H. Beuther, Q. Zhang, E.A. Bergin, T.K. Sridharan
  
• Rotational structure and outflow in the Infrared Dark Cloud 18223-3. In: Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2009, 504, 127-137
  C. Fallscheer, H. Beuther, Q. Zhang, E. Keto, T.K. Sridharan