Turbulence and Accretion: a High-resolution Study of the B5 Filaments

Abstract

High-resolution observations of the Perseus B5 "core" have previously revealed that this subsonic region actually consists of several filaments that are likely in the process of forming a quadruple stellar system. Since subsonic filaments are thought to be produced at the $\sim 0.1$ pc sonic scale by turbulent compression, a detailed kinematic study is crucial to test such a scenario in the context of core and star formation. Here we present a detailed kinematic follow-up study of the B5 filaments at a 0.009 pc resolution using the VLA and GBT combined observations fitted with multi-component spectral models. Using precisely identified filament spines, we find a remarkable resemblance between the averaged width profiles of each filament and Plummer-like functions, with filaments possessing FWHM widths of $\sim 0.03$ pc. The velocity dispersion profiles of the filaments also show decreasing trends towards the filament spines. Moreover, the velocity gradient field in B5 appears to be locally well ordered ($\sim 0.04$ pc) but globally complex, with kinematic behaviors suggestive of inhomogeneous turbulent accretion onto filaments and longitudinal flows towards a local overdensity along one of the filaments.