Mapsof the NGC 6334 main filament region in 3.1 mm continuum emission with ALMA 12 m (panel a), N₂H⁺(1–0) integrated intensity with ALMA 12 m+7 m (panel b), 350 μm dust continuum emission with ArTéMiS (panel c, from André et al. 2016), and 8 μm dust continuum emission with Spitzer (panel d). In panel a, the magenta filled circle indicates the position of a radio continuum compact HII region (source D in Rodriguez et al. 1982), and green open circles indicate the positions of the compact 3.1 mm continuum sources identified with getsources (see Sect. 3.3.1). In panel a, the solidwhite contour marks the footprint of the main filament, defined as the intersection of the area within ±30′′ from the filament crest and the interior of the 5 Jy beam⁻¹ contour in the ArTéMiS 350 μm map. In panels a and d, contours of 3.1 mm continuum emission are overlaid with levels of 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40σ, where 1σ = 0.2 mJy/ALMA-beam. In panel b, the N₂H⁺ intensity was integrated over the velocity range from −11.4 km s⁻¹ to +16.8 km s⁻¹, including all hyperfine components. In panel c, contours of 350 μm dust continuum emission are shown with levels of 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, and 20 Jy/8′′ -beam, and dashed ellipses indicate the positions of the ArTéMiS dense clumps identified with GAUSSCLUMPS (see Sect. 4.1). In all panels, the crest of the NGC 6334 main filament as traced with the DisPerSE algorithm in the ArTéMiS 350 μm map (André et al. 2016) is shown as a solid curve.