Herschel investigation of cores and filamentary structures in L1251 located in the Cepheus flare

Abstract

Molecular clouds are the prime locations of star formation. These clouds contain filamentary structures and cores which are crucial in the formation of young stars. In this work, we aim to quantify the physical properties of structural characteristics within the molecular cloud L1251 to better understand the initial conditions for star formation. We applied the getsf algorithm to identify cores and filaments within the molecular cloud L1251 using the Herschel multi-band dust continuum image, enabling us to measure their respective physical properties. Additionally, we utilized an enhanced differential term algorithm to produce high-resolution temperature maps and column density maps with a resolution of \({13.5}''\). We identified 122 cores in the region. Of those, 23 are protostellar cores, 13 are robust prestellar cores, 32 are candidate prestellar cores (including 13 robust prestellar cores and 19 strictly candidate prestellar cores), and 67 are unbound starless cores. getsf also found 147 filament structures in the region. Statistical analysis of the physical properties (mass (M), temperature (T), size and core brightness (hereafter, we are using the word luminosity (L)) for the core brightness) of obtained cores shows a negative correlation between core mass and temperature and a positive correlation between (M/L) and (M/T). Analysis of the filaments gives a median width of 0.14 pc and no correlation between width and length. Out of those 122 cores, 92 are present in filaments (\(\sim \) 75.4%) and the remaining were outside them. Out of the cores present in filaments, 57 (\(\sim \) 62%) cores are present in supercritical filaments (\(M_\textrm{line}>16 \ M_{\odot }/\textrm{pc}\)).