Surveys of clumps, cores, and condensations in Cygnus-X

SMA observations of SiO (5−4)

¹ School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University, 163 Xianlin Avenue, Nanjing 210023, PR China
e-mail: kpqiu@nju.edu.cn
² Key Laboratory of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics (Nanjing University), Ministry of Education, Nanjing 210023, PR China

Received: 11 May 2023
Accepted: 6 November 2023

Abstract

Context. The SiO emissions are usually used to trace high-velocity outflow shocks in star-forming regions. However, several studies have found low-velocity and widespread SiO emissions not associated with outflows in molecular clouds.

Aims. We aim to detect and characterize the SiO emissions in massive dense cores (MDCs), and explore the properties of the central sources of SiO emission.

Methods. We present high-angular-resolution (~1.5″) observations of the SiO (5−4) line made with the Submillimeter Array towards a sample of 48 MDCs in the Cygnus-X star-forming complex. We studied the SiO emission structures, including their morphologies, kinematics, and energetics, and investigated their relationship with the evolution of the central sources.

Results. The SiO (5−4) emission is detected in 16 out of 48 MDCs. We identify 14 bipolar and 18 unipolar SiO (5−4) outflows associated with 29 dust condensations. Most outflows (24 out of 32) are associated with excess Spitzer 4.5 μm emissions. We also find diffuse low-velocity (Δv ≤ 1.2 km s⁻¹) SiO (5−4) emission closely surrounding the dust condensations in two MDCs, and suggest that it may originate from decelerated outflow shocks or large-scale shocks from global cloud collapse.

Conclusions. We find that the SMA SiO (5−4) emission in MDCs is mostly associated with outflows. Probably due to the relatively high excitation of SiO (5−4) compared to SiO (2−1) and due to the spatial filtering effect, we do not detect large-scale low-velocity SiO (5−4) emission, but detect more compact low-velocity emission in close proximity to the dust condensations. We group the sources into different evolutionary stages based on the infrared emission, radio continuum emission, and gas temperature properties of the outflow central sources, and find that the 24 μm luminosity tends to increase with evolution.