An Observed Lack of Substructure in Starless Cores

Abstract

In this paper, we present the results of a high resolution (5'') Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy and Sunyaev-Zeldovich Array survey of the 3 mm continuum emission from 11 of the brightest (at 1.1 mm) starless cores in the Perseus molecular cloud. We detect 2 of the 11 cores, both of which are composed of single structures, and the median 3σ upper limit for the non-detections is 0.2 M_⊙ in a ~5'' beam. These results are consistent with, and as stringent as, the low detection rate of compact 3 mm continuum emission in dense cores in Perseus reported by Olmi et al. From the non-detection of multiple components in any of the 11 cores, we conclude that starless core mass functions derived from bolometer maps at resolutions range 10''-30'' (e.g., with MAMBO, SCUBA, or Bolocam) are unlikely to be significantly biased by the blending of lower mass cores with small separations. These observations provide additional evidence that the majority of starless cores in Perseus have inner density profiles shallower than r^( –2).