Gravity drives the evolution of infrared dark hubs: JVLA observations of SDC13

Adam Avison; Ana Duarte-Cabral; Gary A. Fuller; Gwenllian M. Williams; Nicolas Peretto

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Gravity drives the evolution of infrared dark hubs: JVLA observations of SDC13

Gwenllian M. Williams, Nicolas Peretto, Adam Avison, Ana Duarte-Cabral, Gary A. Fuller

Astrophysics of Galaxies · Submitted 22 Jan 2018

abstract compiled · 2026-09-23 · no language-model review

The authors' main claim Then gravity takes over and starts shaping the evolution of the hub, both fragmenting filaments and pulling the gas towards the centre of the gravitational well.

how it is stated · asserted 0.93 read the record →

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arXiv ID1801.07253 (version 1)

Pith IDPQQYUIJJ, Pith's permanent record of this paper and its review

CitationAdam Avison, Ana Duarte-Cabral, Gary A. Fuller, Gwenllian M. Williams, Nicolas Peretto. "Gravity drives the evolution of infrared dark hubs: JVLA observations of SDC13." arXiv:1801.07253 (2018). https://pith.science/paper/PQQYUIJJ

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What the abstract itself states, as probabilities: claims first 0.03 · states limitation 0.07 · human participants 0.01 · controlled comparison 0.02 · randomized assignment 0.01 · states quantitative result 0.98 · compares with prior results 0.11 · mentions code or data availability 0.02.

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arXiv listing abstract v1. Results and the main claim are underlined; show every role.

Converging networks of interstellar filaments i.e. hubs, have been recently linked to the formation of stellar clusters and massive stars. The goal is to study the kinematic and density structure of the SDC13 hub at high angular resolution to determine what drives its evolution and fragmentation. We have mapped SDC13, a 1000Msun infrared dark hub, in NH3(1,1) and NH3(2,2) emission lines, with both the JVLA and GBT down to 0.07pc. The mass-per-unit-lengths of all four hub filaments are thermally super-critical, consistent with the presence of tens of gravitationally bound cores along them. These cores exhibit regular separation of 0.37 +/- 0.16 pc suggesting gravitational instabilities running along these super-critical filaments are responsible for their fragmentation. The observed local increase of the dense gas velocity dispersion towards starless cores is believed to be a consequence of such fragmentation process. We see velocity gradient peaks towards 63% of the cores as expected during the early stages of filament fragmentation. The most massive cores are located at the filament junctions, where the velocity dispersion is the largest. We interpret this as the result of the hub morphology generating the largest acceleration gradients near the hub centre. We propose a scenario for the evolution of the SDC13 hub in which filaments first form as post-shock structures in a supersonic turbulent flow. Then gravity takes over and starts shaping the evolution of the hub, both fragmenting filaments and pulling the gas towards the centre of the gravitational well. By doing so, gravitational energy is converted into kinetic energy in both local (cores) and global (hub centre) potential well minima. Furthermore, the generation of larger gravitational acceleration gradients at the filament junctions promotes the formation of more massive cores. [abridged]

background contribution method result interpretation main claim

What the classifier reports for each sentence. The number is the probability it gave the label.
#	sentence	role	the authors' own work	states the main conclusion	strength
s0	Converging networks of interstellar filaments i.e. hubs, have been recently linked to the formation of stellar clusters and massive stars.	background 1.00	0.05	0.03	asserted 0.82
s1	The goal is to study the kinematic and density structure of the SDC13 hub at high angular resolution to determine what drives its evolution and fragmentation.	contribution 0.78	0.18	0.03	unclear 0.63
s2	We have mapped SDC13, a 1000Msun infrared dark hub, in NH3(1,1) and NH3(2,2) emission lines, with both the JVLA and GBT down to 0.07pc.	method 0.91	0.97	0.02	asserted 1.00
s3	The mass-per-unit-lengths of all four hub filaments are thermally super-critical, consistent with the presence of tens of gravitationally bound cores along them.	result 0.99	0.90	0.13	hedged possibility 0.67
s4	These cores exhibit regular separation of 0.37 +/- 0.16 pc suggesting gravitational instabilities running along these super-critical filaments are responsible for their fragmentation.	result 0.64	0.90	0.36	hedged possibility 0.70
s5	The observed local increase of the dense gas velocity dispersion towards starless cores is believed to be a consequence of such fragmentation process.	interpretation 0.89	0.20	0.08	hedged possibility 0.80
s6	We see velocity gradient peaks towards 63% of the cores as expected during the early stages of filament fragmentation.	result 0.99	0.94	0.08	asserted 0.99
s7	The most massive cores are located at the filament junctions, where the velocity dispersion is the largest.	result 1.00	0.93	0.12	asserted 1.00
s8	We interpret this as the result of the hub morphology generating the largest acceleration gradients near the hub centre.	interpretation 1.00	0.53	0.18	speculative 0.43
s9	We propose a scenario for the evolution of the SDC13 hub in which filaments first form as post-shock structures in a supersonic turbulent flow.	interpretation 0.99	0.20	0.09	speculative 0.73
s10	Then gravity takes over and starts shaping the evolution of the hub, both fragmenting filaments and pulling the gas towards the centre of the gravitational well.	interpretation 1.00	0.21	0.65	asserted 0.93
s11	By doing so, gravitational energy is converted into kinetic energy in both local (cores) and global (hub centre) potential well minima.	interpretation 1.00	0.34	0.24	asserted 0.99
s12	Furthermore, the generation of larger gravitational acceleration gradients at the filament junctions promotes the formation of more massive cores. [abridged]	interpretation 1.00	0.42	0.35	asserted 0.51

What kind of paper the classifier reports this is: empirical study 1.00 · evidence from observation or experiment 1.00.

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arXiv listing abstract v1

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figures and tables
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The paper

Original abstract

Converging networks of interstellar filaments i.e. hubs, have been recently linked to the formation of stellar clusters and massive stars. The goal is to study the kinematic and density structure of the SDC13 hub at high angular resolution to determine what drives its evolution and fragmentation. We have mapped SDC13, a 1000Msun infrared dark hub, in NH3(1,1) and NH3(2,2) emission lines, with both the JVLA and GBT down to 0.07pc. The mass-per-unit-lengths of all four hub filaments are thermally super-critical, consistent with the presence of tens of gravitationally bound cores along them. These cores exhibit regular separation of 0.37 +/- 0.16 pc suggesting gravitational instabilities running along these super-critical filaments are responsible for their fragmentation. The observed local increase of the dense gas velocity dispersion towards starless cores is believed to be a consequence of such fragmentation process. We see velocity gradient peaks towards 63% of the cores as expected during the early stages of filament fragmentation. The most massive cores are located at the filament junctions, where the velocity dispersion is the largest. We interpret this as the result of the hub morphology generating the largest acceleration gradients near the hub centre. We propose a scenario for the evolution of the SDC13 hub in which filaments first form as post-shock structures in a supersonic turbulent flow. Then gravity takes over and starts shaping the evolution of the hub, both fragmenting filaments and pulling the gas towards the centre of the gravitational well. By doing so, gravitational energy is converted into kinetic energy in both local (cores) and global (hub centre) potential well minima. Furthermore, the generation of larger gravitational acceleration gradients at the filament junctions promotes the formation of more massive cores. [abridged]

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46 later papers cite it

Evidence: substantial. 35 of the citing papers share no author with it, and 6 of those carry a confident label from Pith's citation classifier.

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Uses its data or values 1 paper · 1 by the same authors

By the same authors

Used this paper's collapsing timescales of 0.1–0.7 Myr for these structures to explain the numerous dense cores along the filament ridge and where multiple filaments converge.

Formation of the SDC13 Hub-Filament System: A Cloud-Cloud Collision Imprinted on The Multiscale Magnetic Field (2022) (same authors) · 0.82 · paraphrased: the licence does not allow quoting

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5 arXiv papers cite this in 6 sentences

Each citing sentence is taken from the citing paper's LaTeX source and typed by Pith's classifier. A label appears at probability 0.8 or more (0.95 for support), a contest at 0.7 or more; the quoted words are the citing authors'. How each label was checked · JSON

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Cites it as background 1 paper

One of the competing theory among several others for the formation of massive star is “high accretion of gas through the filaments", where massive stars are proposed to form at the junction of several such accreting filaments [ref] .

Investigating inner and large scale physical environments of IRAS 17008-4040 and IRAS 17009-4042 toward l = 345.5 deg, b = 0.3 deg · Introduction · 0.91

What it cites · 1 sentence without a confident label

Cites as support 1 paper

In this context, the velocity dispersion increase towards the core would be then purely generated by gravity [ref] .

Gravity or turbulence? IV. Collapsing cores in out-of-virial disguise · Linewidth as a probe of infall · 0.98

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