Mass accretion flows in the high-mass star forming complex NGC 6334

¹ I. Physikalisches Institut, Universität zu Köln, Cologne, Germany
² Department of Astronomy, Yunnan Univeristy, China

Abstract

The formation of high-mass stars is one of the major topics of astrophysical research, in particular the process of accretion from large-scale clouds down to small-scale cores. We have selected the nearby, filamentary, high-mass star forming complex NGC 6334 to study the gas velocity at different scales and probe the infall rates onto the protostellar cores embedded in the NGC 6334-I and I(N) clusters. This study makes use of single-dish and interferometric submillimeter observations, complemented with 3D numerical non-LTE radiative transfer modeling. We measure a mass accretion rate of 10⁻⁵ M_⊙ yr⁻¹ throughout the filament increasing up to 10⁻³ M_⊙ yr⁻¹ towards the densest regions where high-mass stars are forming. At smaller scales, our 3D model is consistent with accretion rates of 10⁻³ M_⊙ yr⁻¹ towards the clusters, and 10⁻⁴ M_⊙ yr⁻¹ onto the protostars.