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arxiv: 2606.19756 · v1 · pith:U74AJGMWnew · submitted 2026-06-18 · 🌌 astro-ph.GA

Evolution of starless cores in massive clumps seen by the ALMA ASHES and QUARKS surveys

Dongting Yang , Hong-li Liu , Sheng-li Qin , Tie Liu , Wenyu Jiao , Guido Garay , Patricio Sanhueza , Fengwei Xu
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Lei Zhu Sami Dib Xindi Tang Amelia Stutz Xiaofeng Mai Siju Zhang A.Y. Yang Anandmayee Tej Shanghuo Li Xunchuan Liu Pablo Garc{\i}a Mika Juvela James O. Chibueze Prasanta Gorai kee-tae Kim Chang Won Lee Tapas Baug Swagat Ranjan Das Shivani Gupta Jihye Hwang Leonardo Bronfman Archana Soam L. K. Dewangan
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Pith reviewed 2026-06-26 17:12 UTC · model grok-4.3

classification 🌌 astro-ph.GA
keywords starless coresinfrared dark cloudshigh-mass star formationALMA observationsvirial parameterdensity profilecompetitive accretion
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The pith

Starless cores in evolved infrared-bright clouds have twice the mass of those in early infrared-dark clouds.

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

The paper compares physical properties of hundreds of starless cores found in massive clumps at early and late evolutionary stages through millimeter observations. Cores in the evolved stage show higher median masses, number densities, surface densities, non-thermal motions, and virial parameters, along with steeper density profiles, even though sizes remain comparable. These shifts indicate that low-mass cores form and grow dynamically amid feedback and turbulence rather than requiring massive initial conditions. The pattern favors models in which high-mass stars assemble mass through competitive accretion from surrounding material over scenarios that demand prestellar cores to begin massive.

Core claim

Starless cores in evolved infrared-bright clouds exhibit median masses of 1.5 solar masses versus 0.6 in early infrared-dark clouds, with roughly double the number and surface densities, non-thermal velocity dispersions of 0.5 km/s versus 0.3 km/s, total virial parameters around 2.3 versus 1.0, and steeper density profiles. These differences arise from a combination of new core formation under altered conditions and ongoing dynamical mass growth via accretion from extended reservoirs in feedback-driven, turbulence-enhanced settings.

What carries the argument

Comparative measurement of mass, density, velocity dispersion, virial parameter, and density profile for starless cores across early and evolved stages of massive clumps.

If this is right

  • High-mass star formation proceeds via competitive dynamical accretion from reservoirs rather than requiring initially massive prestellar cores.
  • New starless cores continue to form even in late-stage infrared-bright environments.
  • Core mass growth occurs through accretion in turbulence-enhanced, feedback-active settings.
  • Density profiles of cores become steeper and more centrally concentrated as the surrounding clump evolves.

Where Pith is reading between the lines

These are editorial extensions of the paper, not claims the author makes directly.

  • Models of high-mass star formation need to allow ongoing core formation and growth across multiple evolutionary phases.
  • Matched initial-condition comparisons between cloud samples could isolate evolutionary effects more cleanly.
  • Observations at still later stages could test whether core masses stabilize or keep increasing.

Load-bearing premise

Observed differences in core properties between the two samples arise from evolutionary stage rather than selection biases or distinct initial conditions in the clouds.

What would settle it

Detection of starless cores in infrared-bright clouds with masses and densities matching those in infrared-dark clouds, after accounting for survey sensitivity limits, would falsify the evolutionary growth interpretation.

Figures

Figures reproduced from arXiv: 2606.19756 by Amelia Stutz, Anandmayee Tej, Archana Soam, A.Y. Yang, Chang Won Lee, Dongting Yang, Fengwei Xu, Guido Garay, Hong-Li Liu, James O. Chibueze, Jihye Hwang, Kee-Tae Kim, Lei Zhu, Leonardo Bronfman, L. K. Dewangan, Mika Juvela, Pablo Garc{\i}a, Patricio Sanhueza, Prasanta Gorai, Sami Dib, Shanghuo Li, Sheng-Li Qin, Shivani Gupta, Siju Zhang, Swagat Ranjan Das, Tapas Baug, Tie Liu, Wenyu Jiao, Xiaofeng Mai, Xindi Tang, Xunchuan Liu.

Figure 1
Figure 1. Figure 1: Distribution of the physical parameters of starless cores from the ASHES and QUARKS surveys, including the radius (panel a), mass (panel b), surface density (panel c), and number density (panel d). The black and red dashed lines in each panel represent the median values for the ASHES and QUARKS samples, respectively. ent populations, and a one-sided test confirms QUARKS cores are systematically more massiv… view at source ↗
Figure 2
Figure 2. Figure 2: Example of core-averaged spectra of molecular lines from the QUARKS sample. The transitions of H13CO+, H2CO, DCN, and N2D + are indicated in the first panel the observed differences in core properties are robust against methodological and observational biases. The systematic enhancement in mass, number density, and surface density of QUARKS starless cores relative to ASHES cores could reflect actual enviro… view at source ↗
Figure 3
Figure 3. Figure 3: Panel (a): distribution of the intrinsic observed velocity dispersions (corrected by the velocity resolution, see Sect. 3.2) in the QUARKS starless cores. The color-coding corresponds to different molecular tracers. Panel (b): distribution of the intrinsic observed velocity dispersion from the N2D + molecule between the ASHES (17) and QUARKS (36) starless core samples. The median value with the standard de… view at source ↗
Figure 4
Figure 4. Figure 4: Relation of αvir,th with mass for starless cores from the ASHES (filled circles) and QURKS (filled squares) sur￾veys. The values in parentheses within the top-right legend correspond to the median values of αvir,th. A linear regres￾sion fit to all sample points (black dashed line) yields a slope of −0.62 ± 0.02. The Spearman’s rank test returns a coeffi￾cient of rs = −0.88. The horizontal dashed line marks… view at source ↗
Figure 5
Figure 5. Figure 5: Relation of αvir,tot with mass for starless cores from the ASHES (filled circles) and QURKS (filled squares) sur￾veys. The blue and red contours represent the Kernel Density Estimation distributions of the scatter points from the two survey samples, respectively. The red and blue dashed lines denote the linear regression fits to the two samples, yielding slopes of ∼ −0.5 for both. The Spearman’s rank test … view at source ↗
Figure 6
Figure 6. Figure 6: Inverse cumulative distribution of the starless core mass in the ASHES and QUARKS samples. The green and blue bands represent the masses from 1000 simulations with two specific temperature ranges for the ASHES and QUARKS sample (see text), respectively. The red and black lines present the mass distributions derived from the indi￾vidual TNH3 measurement for the ASHES sample (Li et al. 2023) and from an assu… view at source ↗
Figure 7
Figure 7. Figure 7: Mass versus radius (M − R) diagram. The core masses for the ASHES survey (filled squares) were derived from the TNH3 , and for the QUARKS survey (filled circles) estimated from a fixed 20 K dust temperature assumption. The error bars indicate the standard deviation from 1000 Monte Carlo simulations of each core (see Appendix C). R1.35±0.11 (r ∼ 0.74), implying a steeper density profile of ρ ∝ R−1.7 . Altho… view at source ↗
Figure 8
Figure 8. Figure 8: Masses, radii and number densities of the 56 ASHES cores derived from the astrodendro and getsf. The black dashed line represents y = x, while the two gray dashed lines denote y = 0.5x and y = 2x, respectively. B. EFFECT OF DISTANCE AND SAMPLE NUMBER ON STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE We examined here whether the observed differences in physical parameters (radius and mass) of starless cores between the ASHES and… view at source ↗
Figure 9
Figure 9. Figure 9: Mass versus radius (M − R) diagram for 56 dense cores identified from astrodendro (black dots) and getsf (gray squares), respectively. selected subset of the ASHES sample yielded a median mass significantly lower than that of the QUARKS sample (i.e., 1.66 M⊙), with one-sided K-S tests consistently returning p-values≪ 0.05. These results are consistent with our earlier findings (see Sect. 3.1), indicating t… view at source ↗
Figure 10
Figure 10. Figure 10: Distributions of the radius (panel a) and mass (panel b) of the starless cores in the subset of the QUARKS sample and the ASHES sample, both of which are imposed to the same distance range. Distribution of median core mass obtained from 1000 random resamplings for ASHES starless cores (panel c). The dashed lines in all panels indicate the median values for the corresponding distributions. C. EFFECT OF DUS… view at source ↗
Figure 11
Figure 11. Figure 11: Histograms of the relevant physical parameters for QUARKS starless cores, derived using a fixed dust temperature (TFixed) of 20 K (gray) and from Monte Carlo simulations where the dust temperature (TMC) was randomly sampled from a range of 10 − 30 K (black), respectively. Median values for each distribution are given in parentheses. Across all simulations, the median mass of QUARKS starless cores varies b… view at source ↗
Figure 12
Figure 12. Figure 12: Simulated mass distributions for both the ASHES and QUARKS starless cores (panel a) and the median mass ratio distribution between the simulated QUARKS and ASHES samples (panel b). The dashed line indicates the median value [PITH_FULL_IMAGE:figures/full_fig_p020_12.png] view at source ↗
read the original abstract

We present a systematic comparative analysis of 324 starless cores in early-phase infrared-dark clouds (IRDCs; ASHES survey) and evolved-phase infrared-bright clouds (IRBCs; QUARKS survey) using 1.3 mm continuum and line data by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Despite having comparable sizes ($\sim$2500 au),starless cores in IRBCs exhibit systematically higher median mass ($1.5\,M_{\odot}$ vs. $0.6\,M_{\odot}$), number density, and surface density--enhancements of approximately a factor of two relative to starless cores in IRDCs. Starless cores in IRBCs also display relatively stronger non-thermal motions ($\rm\sigma \sim 0.5\,km\,s^{-1}$ vs. $\rm0.3\,km\,s^{-1}$), higher total virial parameters (median $\alpha_{\mathrm{vir,tot}} \sim$ 2.3 vs. 1.0), and steeper density profiles, indicating more centrally concentrated structures in feedback-driven, turbulence-enhanced environments. These findings support a dual evolutionary origin: (i) new core formation in evolved IRBCs under altered initial conditions, and (ii) subsequent dynamical mass growth via accretion from extended reservoirs. The prevalence of low-mass starless cores--even in late-stage IRBC environments--challenges models requiring massive prestellar cores and instead favors competitive-like dynamical mass accretion scenarios for high-mass star formation.

Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, simulated authors' rebuttal, and a circularity audit. Tearing a paper down is the easy half of reading it; the pith above is the substance, this is the friction.

Referee Report

2 major / 2 minor

Summary. The paper presents a comparative analysis of 324 starless cores detected in ALMA 1.3 mm continuum and line observations from the ASHES survey (early-phase IRDCs) and the QUARKS survey (evolved-phase IRBCs). It reports that cores in IRBCs have systematically higher median mass (1.5 vs. 0.6 M⊙), number density, surface density (factor-of-two enhancements), non-thermal velocity dispersion (0.5 vs. 0.3 km s⁻¹), total virial parameter (median α_vir,tot ~2.3 vs. 1.0), and steeper density profiles despite comparable sizes (~2500 au). The authors interpret these differences as evidence for both new core formation under altered conditions and dynamical mass growth via accretion, supporting competitive-like accretion scenarios for high-mass star formation over models requiring massive prestellar cores.

Significance. If the reported differences can be shown to arise from evolutionary stage rather than unmatched initial conditions or survey-specific selection, the work would supply a statistically substantial observational dataset constraining high-mass star formation pathways, particularly by documenting the continued presence of low-mass starless cores in feedback-active environments. The direct use of two independent ALMA surveys on distinct cloud populations is a methodological strength.

major comments (2)
  1. [Abstract and §3] Abstract and §3 (results): the reported median masses, densities, and virial parameters are presented without accompanying uncertainties, Kolmogorov-Smirnov or similar statistical tests, or explicit sample selection criteria; the central claim that these constitute a factor-of-two evolutionary enhancement therefore cannot be evaluated for robustness against measurement scatter or detection thresholds.
  2. [§4 and methods] §4 (discussion) and methods: the interpretation that higher core masses and densities in QUARKS IRBCs indicate later-stage dynamical growth from low-mass seeds is load-bearing, yet the manuscript does not demonstrate that the parent clump mass, turbulence, or density distributions are matched between the ASHES and QUARKS samples, nor does it apply completeness corrections for low-mass cores; without these controls the factor-of-two differences remain vulnerable to initial-condition or sensitivity differences between the two cloud populations.
minor comments (2)
  1. [Abstract] Abstract: the core size is stated as ~2500 au; clarify whether this is the median, mean, or a characteristic value and provide the corresponding distribution statistic.
  2. [Throughout] Throughout: ensure uniform notation for velocity dispersion (e.g., consistently use σ_nt or σ) and report the exact temperature assumptions used for mass derivation from 1.3 mm flux.

Simulated Author's Rebuttal

2 responses · 0 unresolved

We thank the referee for the constructive comments, which highlight opportunities to strengthen the statistical presentation and controls in our comparative analysis. We address each major comment below and will revise the manuscript accordingly.

read point-by-point responses

  1. Referee: [Abstract and §3] Abstract and §3 (results): the reported median masses, densities, and virial parameters are presented without accompanying uncertainties, Kolmogorov-Smirnov or similar statistical tests, or explicit sample selection criteria; the central claim that these constitute a factor-of-two evolutionary enhancement therefore cannot be evaluated for robustness against measurement scatter or detection thresholds.

    Authors: We agree that the presentation would benefit from explicit uncertainties, statistical tests, and clarified selection criteria. In the revised manuscript we will report uncertainties on all median values (e.g., via bootstrapping or quartile ranges), apply Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests to quantify the significance of differences between the ASHES and QUARKS core populations, and add a dedicated subsection in §3 that explicitly lists the core identification and starless-core classification criteria used in both surveys. These additions will allow readers to assess robustness directly. revision: yes

  2. Referee: [§4 and methods] §4 (discussion) and methods: the interpretation that higher core masses and densities in QUARKS IRBCs indicate later-stage dynamical growth from low-mass seeds is load-bearing, yet the manuscript does not demonstrate that the parent clump mass, turbulence, or density distributions are matched between the ASHES and QUARKS samples, nor does it apply completeness corrections for low-mass cores; without these controls the factor-of-two differences remain vulnerable to initial-condition or sensitivity differences between the two cloud populations.

    Authors: We acknowledge that the evolutionary interpretation relies on the assumption that the observed differences are not dominated by unmatched initial conditions or survey sensitivity. The two surveys were designed to target distinct evolutionary stages (early IRDCs vs. evolved IRBCs), so perfect one-to-one matching of clump properties is not possible from the existing data. In revision we will (i) add a table or figure comparing available clump-scale properties (mass, size, luminosity) between the ASHES and QUARKS samples, (ii) discuss the implications of any mismatches, and (iii) apply or estimate completeness corrections using the published sensitivity limits and core mass functions where feasible. We cannot fully eliminate the possibility of initial-condition differences, but the added controls will make the limitations transparent. revision: partial

Circularity Check

0 steps flagged

No circularity: direct observational medians from independent surveys

full rationale

The paper reports empirical comparisons of measured core masses, densities, velocity dispersions, and virial parameters between the ASHES and QUARKS ALMA datasets. No equations, fitted parameters, or derivations are presented that reduce reported quantities to inputs defined by the same data; the central results are raw statistical contrasts of observed quantities. No self-citation chains or uniqueness theorems are invoked to force the interpretation. The analysis is therefore self-contained against external benchmarks.

Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger

0 free parameters · 2 axioms · 0 invented entities

The analysis rests on standard millimeter astronomy assumptions for converting 1.3 mm flux to mass and on the classification of cores as starless; these are domain conventions rather than new postulates.

axioms (2)
  • domain assumption Dust temperature and opacity values used to convert 1.3 mm continuum flux to core mass are taken from standard assumptions or prior literature.
    Required to derive the reported median masses of 0.6 and 1.5 solar masses.
  • domain assumption Cores are correctly identified as starless by the absence of embedded infrared sources or other evolutionary tracers.
    Central to defining the 324-core sample and the evolutionary comparison.

pith-pipeline@v0.9.1-grok · 5957 in / 1440 out tokens · 38227 ms · 2026-06-26T17:12:19.964880+00:00 · methodology

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