We study the fragmentation of the nearest high line-mass filament, the integral shaped filament (ISF, line-mass ∼ 400 M ⊙ pc −1 ) in the Orion A molecular cloud. We have observed a 1.6 pc long section of the ISF with the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimeter Array (ALMA) at 3 mm continuum emission, at a resolution of ∼3 ′′ (1 200 AU). We identify from the region 43 dense cores with masses about a solar mass. 60% of the ALMA cores are protostellar and 40% are starless. The nearest neighbour separations of the cores do not show a preferred fragmentation scale; the frequency of short separations increases down to 1 200 AU. We apply a twopoint correlation analysis on the dense core separations and show that the ALMA cores are significantly grouped at separations below ∼17 000 AU and strongly grouped below ∼6 000 AU. The protostellar and starless cores are grouped differently: only the starless cores group strongly below ∼6 000 AU. In addition, the spatial distribution of the cores indicates periodic grouping of the cores into groups of ∼30 000 AU in size, separated by ∼50 000 AU. The groups coincide with dust column density peaks detected by Herschel. These results show hierarchical, two-mode fragmentation in which the maternal filament periodically fragments into groups of dense cores. Critically, our results indicate that the fragmentation models for lower line-mass filaments (∼ 16 M ⊙ pc −1 ) fail to capture the observed properties of the ISF. We also find that the protostars identified with Spitzer and Herschel in the ISF are grouped at separations below ∼17 000 AU. In contrast, young stars with disks do not show significant grouping. This suggests that the grouping of dense cores is partially retained over the protostar lifetime, but not over the lifetime of stars with disks. This is in agreement with a scenario where protostars are ejected from the maternal filament by the slingshot mechanism, a model recently proposed for the ISF by Stutz & Gould. The separation distributions of the dense cores and protostars may also provide an evolutionary tracer of filament fragmentation.

Context. Filamentary structures are common morphological features of the cold, molecular interstellar medium (ISM). Recent studies have discovered massive, hundred-parsec-scale filaments that may be connected to the large-scale, Galactic spiral arm structure. Addressing the nature of these giant molecular filaments (GMFs) requires a census of their occurrence and properties. Aims. We perform a systematic search of GMFs in the fourth Galactic quadrant and determine their basic physical properties. Methods. We identify GMFs based on their dust extinction signatures in the near-and mid-infrared and the velocity structure probed by 13 CO line emission. We use the 13 CO line emission and ATLASGAL dust emission data to estimate the total and dense gas masses of the GMFs. We combine our sample with an earlier sample from literature and study the Galactic environment of the GMFs. Results. We identify nine GMFs in the fourth Galactic quadrant: six in the Centaurus spiral arm and three in inter-arm regions. Combining this sample with an earlier study using the same identification criteria in the first Galactic quadrant results in 16 GMFs, nine of which are located within spiral arms. The GMFs have sizes of 80-160 pc and 13 CO-derived masses between 5−90 × 10 4 M . Their dense gas mass fractions are between 1.5-37%, which is higher in the GMFs connected to spiral arms. We also compare the different GMF-identification methods and find that emission and extinction-based techniques overlap only partially, thereby highlighting the need to use both to achieve a complete census.

Aims. We aim to better understand the heating of gas by observing the prominent gas cooling line [C ii] at 158 μm in the lowmetallicity environment of the Local Group spiral galaxy M 33 on scales of 280 pc. In particular, we describe the variation of the photoelectric heating efficiency with the galactic environment.Methods. In this study, we present [C ii] observations along the major axis of M 33 using the Infrared Space Observatory in combination with Herschel continuum maps, IRAM 30 m CO 2−1, and VLA H i data to study the variation in velocity integrated intensities. The ratio of [C ii] emission over the far-infrared continuum is used as a proxy for the heating efficiency, and models of photondominated regions are used to study the local physical densities, far-ultraviolet radiation fields, and average column densities of the molecular clouds. Results. The heating efficiency stays constant at 0.8% in the inner 4.5 kpc radius of the galaxy, where it increases to reach values of ∼3% in the outskirts at about a 6 kpc radial distance. The rise of efficiency is explained in the framework of PDR models by lowered volume densities and FUV fields for optical extinctions of only a few magnitudes at constant metallicity. For the significant fraction of H i emission stemming from PDRs and for typical pressures found in the Galactic cold neutral medium (CNM) traced by H i emission, the CNM contributes ∼15% to the observed [C ii] emission in the inner 2 kpc radius of M 33. The CNM contribution remains largely undetermined in the south, while positions between radial distances of 2 and 7.3 kpc in the north of M 33 show a contribution of ∼40% ± 20%.

We present the first study of the relationship between the column density distribution of molecular clouds within nearby Galactic spiral arms and their evolutionary status as measured from their stellar content. We analyze a sample of 195 molecular clouds located at distances below 5.5 kpc, identified from the ATLASGAL 870 μm data. We define three evolutionary classes within this sample: starless clumps, star-forming clouds with associated young stellar objects, and clouds associated with H ii regions. We find that the N(H 2 ) probability density functions (N-PDFs) of these three classes of objects are clearly different: the N-PDFs of starless clumps are narrowest and close to log-normal in shape, while star-forming clouds and H ii regions exhibit a power-law shape over a wide range of column densities and log-normal-like components only at low column densities. We use the N-PDFs to estimate the evolutionary time-scales of the three classes of objects based on a simple analytic model from literature. Finally, we show that the integral of the N-PDFs, the dense gas mass fraction, depends on the total mass of the regions as measured by ATLASGAL: more massive clouds contain greater relative amounts of dense gas across all evolutionary classes.

Aims. Within the framework of the Herschel M 33 extended survey HerM33es and in combination with multi-wavelength data we study the spectral energy distribution (SED) of a set of H ii regions in the Local Group galaxy M 33 as a function of the morphology.We analyse the emission distribution in regions with different morphologies and present models to infer the Hα emission measure observed for H ii regions with well defined morphology. Methods. We present a catalogue of 119 H ii regions morphologically classified: 9 filled, 47 mixed, 36 shell, and 27 clear shell H ii regions. For each object we extracted the photometry at twelve available wavelength bands, covering a wide wavelength range from FUV-1516 Å (GALEX) to IR-250 μm (Herschel), and we obtained the SED for each object. We also obtained emission line profiles in vertical and horizontal directions across the regions to study the location of the stellar, ionised gas, and dust components. We constructed a simple geometrical model for the clear shell regions, whose properties allowed us to infer the electron density of these regions. Results. We find trends for the SEDs related to the morphology of the regions, showing that the star and gas-dust configuration affects the ratios of the emission in different bands. The mixed and filled regions show higher emission at 24 μm, corresponding to warm dust, than the shells and clear shells. This could be due to the proximity of the dust to the stellar clusters in the case of filled and mixed regions. The far-IR peak for shells and clear shells seems to be located towards longer wavelengths, indicating that the dust is colder for this type of object. The logarithmic 100 μm/70 μm ratio for filled and mixed regions remains constant over one order of magnitude in Hα and FUV surface brightness, while the shells and clear shells exhibit a wider range of values of almost two orders of magnitude.We derive dust masses and dust temperatures for each H ii region by fitting the individual SEDs with dust models proposed in the literature. The derived dust mass range is between 10 2 −10 4 M and the cold dust temperature spans T cold ∼ 12−27 K. The spherical geometrical model proposed for the Hα clear shells is confirmed by the emission profile obtained from the observations and is used to infer the electron density within the envelope: the typical electron density is 0.7 ± 0.3 cm −3 , while filled regions can reach values that are two to five times higher.