Invited review abstract
The Aquila prestellar core population revealed by Herschel
Abstract
The origin and possible universality of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) is a major issue in astrophysics. One
of the main objectives of the Herschel Gould belt survey is to clarify the link between the prestellar core mass
function (CMF) and the IMF. We present and discuss the core
mass function derived from Herschel data for the large population of prestellar cores discovered with SPIRE and PACS in the Aquila Rift cloud complex at $d \sim260$~pc.
We detect a total of 541 starless cores in the entire $\sim$11~deg$^2$ area of the field imaged at 70--500~$\mu$m with SPIRE/PACS. Most of these cores appear to be gravitationally bound, and thus prestellar in nature. Our Herschel results confirm that the shape of the prestellar CMF resembles the stellar IMF, with much higher quality statistics than earlier submillimeter continuum ground-based surveys.
of the main objectives of the Herschel Gould belt survey is to clarify the link between the prestellar core mass
function (CMF) and the IMF. We present and discuss the core
mass function derived from Herschel data for the large population of prestellar cores discovered with SPIRE and PACS in the Aquila Rift cloud complex at $d \sim260$~pc.
We detect a total of 541 starless cores in the entire $\sim$11~deg$^2$ area of the field imaged at 70--500~$\mu$m with SPIRE/PACS. Most of these cores appear to be gravitationally bound, and thus prestellar in nature. Our Herschel results confirm that the shape of the prestellar CMF resembles the stellar IMF, with much higher quality statistics than earlier submillimeter continuum ground-based surveys.