The Cygnus Allscale Survey of Chemistry and Dynamical Environments: CASCADE

Overview and first results toward DR20 from the Max Planck IRAM Observatory program (MIOP)^★

¹ Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Königstuhl 17, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
e-mail: beuther@mpia.de
² Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany
³ IRAM, 300 rue de la Piscine, Domaine Universitaire de Grenoble, 38406 St.-Martin-d’Hères, France
⁴ Department of Astrophysics, University of Vienna, Türkenschanzstrasse 17, 1180 Vienna, Austria
⁵ I. Physikalisches Institut, Universität zu Köln, Zülpicher Str. 77, 50937 Köln, Germany

Received: 17 May 2022
Accepted: 14 July 2022

Abstract

Context. While star formation on large molecular cloud scales and on small core and disk scales has been investigated intensely over the past decades, the connection of the large-scale interstellar material with the densest small-scale cores has been a largely neglected field.

Aims. We wish to understand how the gas is fed from clouds down to cores. This covers dynamical accretion flows as well as the physical and chemical gas properties over a broad range of spatial scales.

Methods. Using the IRAM facilities NOEMA and the IRAM 30 m telescope, we mapped large areas (640 arcmin²) of the archetypical star formation complex Cygnus X at 3.6 mm wavelengths in line and continuum emission. The data were combined and imaged together to cover all accessible spatial scales.

Results. The scope and outline of The Cygnus Allscale Survey of Chemistry and Dynamical Environments (CASCADE) as part of the Max Planck IRAM Observatory Program (MIOP) is presented. We then focus on the first observed subregion in Cygnus X, namely the DR20 star formation site, which comprises sources in a range of evolutionary stages from cold pristine gas clumps to more evolved ultracompact Hii regions. The data covering cloud to cores scales at a linear spatial resolution of <5000 au reveal several kinematic cloud components that may be part of several large-scale flows around the central cores. The temperature structure of the region is investigated by means of the HCN/HNC intensity ratio and compared to dust-derived temperatures. We find that the deuterated DCO⁺ emission is almost exclusively located toward regions at low temperatures below 20 K. Investigating the slopes of spatial power spectra of dense gas tracer intensity distributions (HCO⁺, H¹³CO⁺, and N₂H⁺), we find comparatively flat slopes between −2.9 and −2.6, consistent with high Mach numbers and/or active star formation in DR20.

Conclusions. This MIOP large program on star formation in Cygnus X provides unique new data connecting cloud with core scales. The analysis of the DR20 data presented here highlights the potential of this program to investigate in detail the different physical and chemical aspects and their interrelations from the scale of the natal molecular cloud down to the scale of accretion onto the individual protostellar cores.