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arxiv 2503.05663 v1 pith:H2HJ7G2A submitted 2025-03-07 astro-ph.GA

ALMAGAL III. Compact source catalog: Fragmentation statistics and physical evolution of the core population

classification astro-ph.GA
keywords corecoresclumpalmagalclumpscompactevolutionfragmentation
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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The mechanisms behind the fragmentation of high-mass dense clumps into compact star-forming cores are fundamental topics in current astrophysical research. The ALMAGAL survey provides the opportunity to study this process at an unprecedented level of detail and statistical significance, featuring high-angular resolution $1.38$ mm ALMA observations of $1013$ massive dense clumps at various Galactic locations. These clumps cover a wide range of distances, masses, surface densities, and evolutionary stages. Here, we present the catalog of compact sources obtained with the CuTEx algorithm from continuum images of the full ALMAGAL clump sample combining ACA-$7$m and $12$m ALMA arrays, reaching a uniform high median spatial resolution of $\sim1400$ au. We discuss the fragmentation properties and the estimated physical parameters of the core population. The ALMAGAL compact source catalog includes $6348$ cores detected in $844$ clumps ($83\%$ of the total), with a number of cores per clump between $1$ and $49$ (median of $5$). The estimated core diameters are mostly within $\sim800-3000$ au (median of $1700$ au). We obtained core masses from $0.002$ to $345\,\mathrm{M_{\odot}}$. We evaluated the variation in the core mass function (CMF) with evolution as traced by the clump $L/M$, finding a clear, robust shift and change in slope among CMFs within subsamples at different stages. This finding suggests that the CMF shape is not constant throughout the star formation process, but rather it builds (and flattens) with evolution, with higher core masses reached at later stages. We found that all cores within a clump grow in mass on average with evolution, and the number of cores increases with the core masses. Our results favor a clump-fed scenario for high-mass star formation, in which cores form as low-mass seeds, and then gain mass while further fragmentation occurs in the clump.

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Cited by 2 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score.

  1. The fragmentation properties of massive star-forming regions in 30Dor-10 at 2000 au resolution

    astro-ph.GA 2026-04 unverdicted novelty 8.0

    The core mass function in 30Dor-10 is consistent with a Salpeter-like slope, implying that stellar IMF variations in extreme environments result from evolutionary processes rather than initial fragmentation.

  2. Chemical diversity of dense cores in Orion B: The role of the environment

    astro-ph.GA 2026-07 conditional novelty 6.0

    PCA of 25 molecular lines across 1001 Orion B cores reveals that chemical diversity is driven by column density, the FUV-to-density ratio G0/n, and freeze-out signatures tied to mean density.