Physical and chemical structure of the Serpens filament: Fast formation and gravity-driven accretion^★

¹ Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany
e-mail: ygong@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
² Purple Mountain Observatory and Key Laboratory of Radio Astronomy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210034, PR China
³ Astronomy Department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, PO Box 80203, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia
⁴ South-Western Institute for Astronomy Research, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650500 Yunnan, PR China

Received: 17 September 2020
Accepted: 14 December 2020

Abstract

Context. The Serpens filament, a prominent elongated structure in a relatively nearby molecular cloud, is believed to be at an early evolutionary stage, so studying its physical and chemical properties can shed light on filament formation and early evolution.

Aims. The main goal is to address the physical and chemical properties as well as the dynamical state of the Serpens filament at a spatial resolution of ~0.07 pc and a spectral resolution of ≲0.1 km s⁻¹.

Methods. We performed ¹³CO (1–0), C¹⁸O (1–0), C¹⁷O (1–0), ¹³CO (2–1), C¹⁸O (2–1), and C¹⁷O (2–1) imaging observations toward the Serpens filament with the Institut de Radioastronomie Millimétrique 30-m and Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment telescopes.

Results. Widespread narrow ¹³CO (2–1) self-absorption is observed in this filament, causing the ¹³CO morphology to be different from the filamentary structure traced by C¹⁸O and C¹⁷O. Our excitation analysis suggests that the opacities of C¹⁸O transitions become higher than unity in most regions, and this analysis confirms the presence of widespread CO depletion. Further we show that the local velocity gradients have a tendency to be perpendicular to the filament’s long axis in the outskirts and parallel to the large-scale magnetic field direction. The magnitudes of the local velocity gradients decrease toward the filament’s crest. The observed velocity structure can be a result of gravity-driven accretion flows. The isochronic evolutionary track of the C¹⁸O freeze-out process indicates the filament is young with an age of ≲2 Myr.

Conclusions. We propose that the Serpens filament is a newly-formed slightly-supercritical structure which appears to be actively accreting material from its ambient gas.