Oral Presentation
Initial conditions for high-mass star formation: properties of low luminosity/mass ratio clumps and SMA's unique potential
Presenter: Ke Wang (Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University)
Initial conditions are the key to understand the formation of high-mass stars. With the advances of blind Galactic plane surveys at multiple wavelengths, it becomes possible to determine the global properties of dense clumps that have the potential to form massive stars when they are still at the earliest evolutionary stage. Massive clumps with luminosity/mass ratio less than 1 Lsun/Msun are excellent targets for high-resolution follow-up observations to investigate the initial conditions, including mass concentration, density structure, deuterium, and launch of star formation. I will present a pilot study on low L/M clumps using SMA and highlight the future possibilities. Compared to ALMA and NOEMA, SMA is unique in this study thanks to its dual receiver capability, which provides simultaneous coverage of several deuterium line pairs and a 32 GHz broadband continuum.