We analyze the galaxy pairs in a set of volume limited samples from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to study the effects of minor interactions on the star formation rate(SFR)and color of galaxies.We carefully design cont...We analyze the galaxy pairs in a set of volume limited samples from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to study the effects of minor interactions on the star formation rate(SFR)and color of galaxies.We carefully design control samples of isolated galaxies by matching the stellar mass and redshift of the minor pairs.The SFR distributions and color distributions in the minor pairs differ from their controls at>99%significance level.We also simultaneously match the control galaxies in stellar mass,redshift and local density to assess the role of the environment.The null hypothesis can be rejected at>99%confidence level even after matching the environment.Our analysis shows a quenching in the minor pairs where the degree of quenching decreases with the increasing pair separation and plateaus beyond 50 kpc.We also prepare a sample of minor pairs with Hαline information.We calculate the SFR of these galaxies using the Hαline and repeat our analysis.We observe a quenching in the Hαsample too.We find that the majority of the minor pairs are quiescent systems that could be quenched due to minor interactions.Combining data from the Galaxy Zoo and Galaxy Zoo 2,we find that only∼1%galaxies have a dominant bulge,4%–7%galaxies host a bar and 5%–10%of galaxies show active galactic nucleus(AGN)activity in minor pairs.This indicates that the presence of bulge,bar or AGN activity plays an insignificant role in quenching the galaxies in minor pairs.The more massive companion satisfies the criteria for mass quenching in most of the minor pairs.We propose that the stripping and starvation likely caused the quenching in the less massive companion at a later stage of evolution.展开更多
Large scale spectroscopic surveys such as that using Large-sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope(LAMOST) have collected spectra of millions stars in the Milky Way.Utilizing this huge sample of stars to s...Large scale spectroscopic surveys such as that using Large-sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope(LAMOST) have collected spectra of millions stars in the Milky Way.Utilizing this huge sample of stars to study the assembling history and structure of our Galaxy requires accurate estimates of distance,extinction,age,and mass for individual stars.Combining the parallax constraint from Gaia EDR3 with Bayesian inference,we have estimated the distance and extinction for stars observed in LAMOST DR7,as well as the stellar mass and age for evolved stars in this data release.We validated the accuracies of the stellar parameters by comparing our results against various measurements,including the star-pair technique,asteroseismology,globular clusters,and isochrone fits to main sequence stars and subgiants.This is a valuable catalog of stellar parameters under a Bayesian framework estimated using the data from Gaia EDR3 and LAMOST spectroscopic data.With this data set we explored the stellar population of the Galactic massive substructure Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus(GSE).The kinematically selected members of GSE have a median metallicity of [Fe/H] =-1.29 and a median age of 11.6 Gyr.展开更多
We determined the relative stellar ages and metallicities of about 80 elliptical galaxies in both low and high density environments using the latest binary stellar population (BSP) synthesis model and tested the pre...We determined the relative stellar ages and metallicities of about 80 elliptical galaxies in both low and high density environments using the latest binary stellar population (BSP) synthesis model and tested the predictions of a recent hierarchical formation model that adopted the new ACDM cosmology. The stellar ages and metallicities were estimated from two high-quality published spectra line indices, the Hβ and [MgFe] indices. The results show that the stellar populations of elliptical galaxies are older than 3.9 Gyr and more metal rich than 0.02. Most of our results are in agreement with the model predictions; (1) elliptical galaxies in denser environment are redder and have older populations than field galaxies; (2) elliptical galaxies with more massive stellar components are redder and have older and more metal rich populations than less massive ones; (3) the most massive galaxies have the oldest and most metal rich stars. However, some of our results differ from the model predictions on the metallicity distributions of low- and high-density elliptical galaxies and the dependence on the distance to the cluster center.展开更多
We analyze the radial and vertical metallicity and [α/Fe] gradients of the disk stars of a disk galaxy simulated in a fully cosmological setting with the chemo- dynamical galaxy evolution code GCD+. We study how the...We analyze the radial and vertical metallicity and [α/Fe] gradients of the disk stars of a disk galaxy simulated in a fully cosmological setting with the chemo- dynamical galaxy evolution code GCD+. We study how the radial abundance gradients vary as a function of height above the plane and find that the metallicity ([α/Fe]) gra- dient becomes more positive (negative) with increasing height, changing sign around 1.5 kpc above the plane. At the largest vertical height (2 〈 丨z丨 〈 3 kpc), our simulated galaxy shows a positive radial metallicity gradient. We find that the positive metallicity gradient is caused by the age-metallicity and age-velocity dispersion relation, where younger stars have higher metallicity and lower velocity dispersion. Due to the age- velocity dispersion relation, a greater fraction of younger stars reaches 丨z丨 〉 2 kpc at the outer region, because of the lower gravitational restoring force of the disk, i.e. flaring. As a result, the fraction of younger stars with higher metallicity due to the age-metallicity relation becomes higher at the outer radii, which makes the median metallicity higher at the outer radii. Combining this result with the recently observed age-metallicity and age-velocity dispersion relation for the Milky Way thick disk stars suggested by Haywood et al., we argue that the observed (small) positive radial metal- licity gradient at large heights of the Milky Way disk stars can be explained by flaring of the younger thick and/or thin disk stars.展开更多
Stars form through the gravitational collapse of molecular cloud cores.Before collapsing,the cores are supported by thermal pressure and turbulent motions.A question of critical importance for the understanding of sta...Stars form through the gravitational collapse of molecular cloud cores.Before collapsing,the cores are supported by thermal pressure and turbulent motions.A question of critical importance for the understanding of star formation is how to observationally discern whether a core has already initiated gravitational collapse or is still in hydrostatic balance.The canonical method to identify gravitational collapse is based on the observed radial density profile,which would change from Bonnor-Ebert type toward power laws as the core collapses.In practice,due to the projection effect,the resolution limit and other caveats,it has been difficult to directly reveal the dynamical status of cores,particularly in massive star forming regions.We here propose a novel,straightforward diagnostic,namely,the collapsing index(CI),which can be modeled and calculated based on the radial profile of the line width of dense gas.A meaningful measurement of CI requires spatially and spectrally resolved images of optically thin and chemically stable dense gas tracers.ALMA observations are making such data sets increasingly available for massive star forming regions.Applying our method to one of the deepest dense-gas spectral images ever taken toward such a region,namely,the Orion molecular cloud,we detect the dynamical status of selected cores.We observationally distinguished a collapsing core in a massive star forming region from a hydrostatical one.Our approach would help significantly improve our understanding of the interaction between gravity and turbulence within molecular cloud cores in the process of star formation.展开更多
We report the results of ^12CO of Ultra-Compact (UC) HII regions with and ^13CO J=1-0 observations of eight candidates the Purple Mountain Observatory (PMO) Qinghai 13.7 -m telescope, which resulted in revealing 1...We report the results of ^12CO of Ultra-Compact (UC) HII regions with and ^13CO J=1-0 observations of eight candidates the Purple Mountain Observatory (PMO) Qinghai 13.7 -m telescope, which resulted in revealing 11 molecular cores. Their masses range from 130 to 1.7 × 10^4 M⊙, with different spatial scales (1 - 6 pc). Also presented are the relevant HCO+ j=1-0 maps, which enabled us to investigate more detailed structures of these cores. Further comparisons show that four of the cores deviated from the centers of infrared (MIR) emission of Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX), while others correspond either to bright MIR sources or diffuse MIR background. This indicates various evolutionary phases of the cores, including quite early ones for those without MIR sources.展开更多
We enhance the Syer & Tremaine made-to-measure (M2M) particle method of stellar dynamical modelling to model simultaneously both kinematic data and absorption line strength data, thus creating a 'chemo-M2M' model...We enhance the Syer & Tremaine made-to-measure (M2M) particle method of stellar dynamical modelling to model simultaneously both kinematic data and absorption line strength data, thus creating a 'chemo-M2M' modelling scheme. We apply the enhanced method to four galaxies (NGC 1248, NGC 3838, NGC 4452, NGC 4551) observed using the SAURON integral-field spectrograph as part of the ATLAS3D programme. We are able to reproduce successfully the 2D line strength data achieving mean X2 per bin values of ≈ 1 with 〉 95% of particles having converged weights. Because M2M uses a 3D particle system, we are also able to examine the underlying 3D line strength distributions. The extent to which these dis- tributions are plausible representations of real galaxies requires further consideration. Overall, we consider the modelling exercise to be a promising first step in developing a 'chemo-M2M' modelling system and in understanding some of the issues to be addressed. While the made-to-measure techniques developed have been applied to absorption line strength data, they are in fact general and may be of value in modelling other aspects of galaxies.展开更多
Semi-analytic models of galaxy formation are powerful tools to study the evolution of a galaxy population in a cosmological context. However, most models overpredict the number of low- mass galaxies at high redshifts ...Semi-analytic models of galaxy formation are powerful tools to study the evolution of a galaxy population in a cosmological context. However, most models overpredict the number of low- mass galaxies at high redshifts and the colors of model galaxies are not right in the sense that low-mass satellite galaxies are too red and centrals are too blue. The recent version of the L-Galaxies model by Henriques et al. (H15) is a step forward to solve these problems by reproducing the evolution of stellar mass function and the overall fraction of red galaxies. In this paper we compare the two model predictions of L-Galaxies (the other is Guo et al., G13) to SDSS data in detail. We find that in the H15 model the red fraction of central galaxies now agrees with the data due to their implementation of strong AGN feedback, but the stellar mass of centrals in massive halos is now slightly lower than what is indicated by the data. For satellite galaxies, the red fraction of low-mass galaxies (log M./M~ 〈 10) also agrees with the data, but the color of massive satellites (10 〈 logM,/M~ 〈 11) is slightly bluer. The correct color of centrals and the bluer color of massive satellites indicate that quenching in massive satellites is not strong enough. We also find that there are too many red spirals and less bulge-dominated galaxies in both H15 and G13 models. Our results suggest that additional mechanisms, such as more minor mergers or disk instability, are needed to slightly increase the stellar mass of the central galaxy in massive galaxies, mainly in the bulge component, and bulge dominated galaxies will be quenched not only by minor mergers, but also by some other mechanisms.展开更多
Using data from Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team Survey at 90 GHz (MALT90), we present a molecular line study of a sample of APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL) clumps. Twelve emission lines ...Using data from Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team Survey at 90 GHz (MALT90), we present a molecular line study of a sample of APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL) clumps. Twelve emission lines have been detected in all. We found that in most sources, emissions of HC3N, HN13C, CH3CN, HNCO and SiO show more compact distributions than those of HCO+, HNC, HCN and N2H+. By comparing with other molecular lines, we found that the abun- dance of HNCO (x(HNCO)) correlates well with other species such as HC3N, HNC, C2H, H13CO+ and N2H+. Previous studies indicate the HNCO abundance could be enhanced by shocks. However, in this study, we find the abundance of HNCO does not correlate well with that of SiO, which is also a good tracer of shocks. We suggest this may be because HNCO and SiO trace different parts of shocks. Our analysis indicates that the velocity of a shock traced by HNCO tends to be lower than that traced by SiO. In the low-velocity shocks traced by HNCO, the HNCO abundance increases faster than that of SiO. While in the relatively high-velocity shocks traced by SiO, the SiO abundance increases faster than that of HNCO. We suggest that in the infrared dark cloud MSXDC G331.71+00.59, high-velocity shocks are destroying the molecule HNCO.展开更多
Using the 13.7m radio telescope at Delingha, the millimeter-wave radioobservatory of Purple Mountain Observatory, we made mapping observations in ^(12)CO J = 1 - 0 linetowards IRAS 05417+0907, located in the bright-ri...Using the 13.7m radio telescope at Delingha, the millimeter-wave radioobservatory of Purple Mountain Observatory, we made mapping observations in ^(12)CO J = 1 - 0 linetowards IRAS 05417+0907, located in the bright-rimmed cloud (BRC) BRC18. We used a 7 x 7 grid with1' spacing, a finer and larger grid than the one used by Myers et al. Our results show that there isa bipolar outflow near IRAS 05417+0907. Combining with the observations at other wave bands, wefind that the star formation process in this region is triggered by radiation-driven implosion. Thesignificant difference between the masses of BRC18 and the cores and the relatively large ratio ofassociated source bolometric luminosity to the mass show that the star formation in BRC18 may betaking place in a sequence.展开更多
基金financial support from the SERB,DST,Government of India through the project CRG/2019/001110IUCAA,Pune for providing support through an associateship program+8 种基金IISER Tirupati for support through a postdoctoral fellowshipFunding for the SDSS and SDSS-II has been provided by the Alfred P.Sloan Foundationthe Participating Institutionsthe National Science Foundationthe U.S.Department of Energythe National Aeronautics and Space Administrationthe Japanese Monbukagakushothe Max Planck Societythe Higher Education Funding Council for England.
文摘We analyze the galaxy pairs in a set of volume limited samples from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to study the effects of minor interactions on the star formation rate(SFR)and color of galaxies.We carefully design control samples of isolated galaxies by matching the stellar mass and redshift of the minor pairs.The SFR distributions and color distributions in the minor pairs differ from their controls at>99%significance level.We also simultaneously match the control galaxies in stellar mass,redshift and local density to assess the role of the environment.The null hypothesis can be rejected at>99%confidence level even after matching the environment.Our analysis shows a quenching in the minor pairs where the degree of quenching decreases with the increasing pair separation and plateaus beyond 50 kpc.We also prepare a sample of minor pairs with Hαline information.We calculate the SFR of these galaxies using the Hαline and repeat our analysis.We observe a quenching in the Hαsample too.We find that the majority of the minor pairs are quiescent systems that could be quenched due to minor interactions.Combining data from the Galaxy Zoo and Galaxy Zoo 2,we find that only∼1%galaxies have a dominant bulge,4%–7%galaxies host a bar and 5%–10%of galaxies show active galactic nucleus(AGN)activity in minor pairs.This indicates that the presence of bulge,bar or AGN activity plays an insignificant role in quenching the galaxies in minor pairs.The more massive companion satisfies the criteria for mass quenching in most of the minor pairs.We propose that the stripping and starvation likely caused the quenching in the less massive companion at a later stage of evolution.
基金The Guo Shou Jing Telescope(the Large-sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope,LAMOST)is a National Major Scientific Project built by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.Funding for the project has been provided by the National Development and Reform Commissionsupported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC,Grant No.12073047)。
文摘Large scale spectroscopic surveys such as that using Large-sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope(LAMOST) have collected spectra of millions stars in the Milky Way.Utilizing this huge sample of stars to study the assembling history and structure of our Galaxy requires accurate estimates of distance,extinction,age,and mass for individual stars.Combining the parallax constraint from Gaia EDR3 with Bayesian inference,we have estimated the distance and extinction for stars observed in LAMOST DR7,as well as the stellar mass and age for evolved stars in this data release.We validated the accuracies of the stellar parameters by comparing our results against various measurements,including the star-pair technique,asteroseismology,globular clusters,and isochrone fits to main sequence stars and subgiants.This is a valuable catalog of stellar parameters under a Bayesian framework estimated using the data from Gaia EDR3 and LAMOST spectroscopic data.With this data set we explored the stellar population of the Galactic massive substructure Gaia-Sausage-Enceladus(GSE).The kinematically selected members of GSE have a median metallicity of [Fe/H] =-1.29 and a median age of 11.6 Gyr.
基金Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
文摘We determined the relative stellar ages and metallicities of about 80 elliptical galaxies in both low and high density environments using the latest binary stellar population (BSP) synthesis model and tested the predictions of a recent hierarchical formation model that adopted the new ACDM cosmology. The stellar ages and metallicities were estimated from two high-quality published spectra line indices, the Hβ and [MgFe] indices. The results show that the stellar populations of elliptical galaxies are older than 3.9 Gyr and more metal rich than 0.02. Most of our results are in agreement with the model predictions; (1) elliptical galaxies in denser environment are redder and have older populations than field galaxies; (2) elliptical galaxies with more massive stellar components are redder and have older and more metal rich populations than less massive ones; (3) the most massive galaxies have the oldest and most metal rich stars. However, some of our results differ from the model predictions on the metallicity distributions of low- and high-density elliptical galaxies and the dependence on the distance to the cluster center.
基金Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China
文摘We analyze the radial and vertical metallicity and [α/Fe] gradients of the disk stars of a disk galaxy simulated in a fully cosmological setting with the chemo- dynamical galaxy evolution code GCD+. We study how the radial abundance gradients vary as a function of height above the plane and find that the metallicity ([α/Fe]) gra- dient becomes more positive (negative) with increasing height, changing sign around 1.5 kpc above the plane. At the largest vertical height (2 〈 丨z丨 〈 3 kpc), our simulated galaxy shows a positive radial metallicity gradient. We find that the positive metallicity gradient is caused by the age-metallicity and age-velocity dispersion relation, where younger stars have higher metallicity and lower velocity dispersion. Due to the age- velocity dispersion relation, a greater fraction of younger stars reaches 丨z丨 〉 2 kpc at the outer region, because of the lower gravitational restoring force of the disk, i.e. flaring. As a result, the fraction of younger stars with higher metallicity due to the age-metallicity relation becomes higher at the outer radii, which makes the median metallicity higher at the outer radii. Combining this result with the recently observed age-metallicity and age-velocity dispersion relation for the Milky Way thick disk stars suggested by Haywood et al., we argue that the observed (small) positive radial metal- licity gradient at large heights of the Milky Way disk stars can be explained by flaring of the younger thick and/or thin disk stars.
文摘Stars form through the gravitational collapse of molecular cloud cores.Before collapsing,the cores are supported by thermal pressure and turbulent motions.A question of critical importance for the understanding of star formation is how to observationally discern whether a core has already initiated gravitational collapse or is still in hydrostatic balance.The canonical method to identify gravitational collapse is based on the observed radial density profile,which would change from Bonnor-Ebert type toward power laws as the core collapses.In practice,due to the projection effect,the resolution limit and other caveats,it has been difficult to directly reveal the dynamical status of cores,particularly in massive star forming regions.We here propose a novel,straightforward diagnostic,namely,the collapsing index(CI),which can be modeled and calculated based on the radial profile of the line width of dense gas.A meaningful measurement of CI requires spatially and spectrally resolved images of optically thin and chemically stable dense gas tracers.ALMA observations are making such data sets increasingly available for massive star forming regions.Applying our method to one of the deepest dense-gas spectral images ever taken toward such a region,namely,the Orion molecular cloud,we detect the dynamical status of selected cores.We observationally distinguished a collapsing core in a massive star forming region from a hydrostatical one.Our approach would help significantly improve our understanding of the interaction between gravity and turbulence within molecular cloud cores in the process of star formation.
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China
文摘We report the results of ^12CO of Ultra-Compact (UC) HII regions with and ^13CO J=1-0 observations of eight candidates the Purple Mountain Observatory (PMO) Qinghai 13.7 -m telescope, which resulted in revealing 11 molecular cores. Their masses range from 130 to 1.7 × 10^4 M⊙, with different spatial scales (1 - 6 pc). Also presented are the relevant HCO+ j=1-0 maps, which enabled us to investigate more detailed structures of these cores. Further comparisons show that four of the cores deviated from the centers of infrared (MIR) emission of Midcourse Space Experiment (MSX), while others correspond either to bright MIR sources or diffuse MIR background. This indicates various evolutionary phases of the cores, including quite early ones for those without MIR sources.
基金supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program“The Emergence of Cosmological Structures”of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(Grant No.XDB09000000)by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC,Grant Nos.11333003 and 11390372).
文摘We enhance the Syer & Tremaine made-to-measure (M2M) particle method of stellar dynamical modelling to model simultaneously both kinematic data and absorption line strength data, thus creating a 'chemo-M2M' modelling scheme. We apply the enhanced method to four galaxies (NGC 1248, NGC 3838, NGC 4452, NGC 4551) observed using the SAURON integral-field spectrograph as part of the ATLAS3D programme. We are able to reproduce successfully the 2D line strength data achieving mean X2 per bin values of ≈ 1 with 〉 95% of particles having converged weights. Because M2M uses a 3D particle system, we are also able to examine the underlying 3D line strength distributions. The extent to which these dis- tributions are plausible representations of real galaxies requires further consideration. Overall, we consider the modelling exercise to be a promising first step in developing a 'chemo-M2M' modelling system and in understanding some of the issues to be addressed. While the made-to-measure techniques developed have been applied to absorption line strength data, they are in fact general and may be of value in modelling other aspects of galaxies.
基金supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2015CB857003 and 2013CB834900)the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. BK 20140050)+1 种基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, No.11333008)the Strategic Priority Research Program ‘The Emergence of Cosmological Structure’ of CAS (No. XDB09010403)
文摘Semi-analytic models of galaxy formation are powerful tools to study the evolution of a galaxy population in a cosmological context. However, most models overpredict the number of low- mass galaxies at high redshifts and the colors of model galaxies are not right in the sense that low-mass satellite galaxies are too red and centrals are too blue. The recent version of the L-Galaxies model by Henriques et al. (H15) is a step forward to solve these problems by reproducing the evolution of stellar mass function and the overall fraction of red galaxies. In this paper we compare the two model predictions of L-Galaxies (the other is Guo et al., G13) to SDSS data in detail. We find that in the H15 model the red fraction of central galaxies now agrees with the data due to their implementation of strong AGN feedback, but the stellar mass of centrals in massive halos is now slightly lower than what is indicated by the data. For satellite galaxies, the red fraction of low-mass galaxies (log M./M~ 〈 10) also agrees with the data, but the color of massive satellites (10 〈 logM,/M~ 〈 11) is slightly bluer. The correct color of centrals and the bluer color of massive satellites indicate that quenching in massive satellites is not strong enough. We also find that there are too many red spirals and less bulge-dominated galaxies in both H15 and G13 models. Our results suggest that additional mechanisms, such as more minor mergers or disk instability, are needed to slightly increase the stellar mass of the central galaxy in massive galaxies, mainly in the bulge component, and bulge dominated galaxies will be quenched not only by minor mergers, but also by some other mechanisms.
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No.11503037)
文摘Using data from Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team Survey at 90 GHz (MALT90), we present a molecular line study of a sample of APEX Telescope Large Area Survey of the Galaxy (ATLASGAL) clumps. Twelve emission lines have been detected in all. We found that in most sources, emissions of HC3N, HN13C, CH3CN, HNCO and SiO show more compact distributions than those of HCO+, HNC, HCN and N2H+. By comparing with other molecular lines, we found that the abun- dance of HNCO (x(HNCO)) correlates well with other species such as HC3N, HNC, C2H, H13CO+ and N2H+. Previous studies indicate the HNCO abundance could be enhanced by shocks. However, in this study, we find the abundance of HNCO does not correlate well with that of SiO, which is also a good tracer of shocks. We suggest this may be because HNCO and SiO trace different parts of shocks. Our analysis indicates that the velocity of a shock traced by HNCO tends to be lower than that traced by SiO. In the low-velocity shocks traced by HNCO, the HNCO abundance increases faster than that of SiO. While in the relatively high-velocity shocks traced by SiO, the SiO abundance increases faster than that of HNCO. We suggest that in the infrared dark cloud MSXDC G331.71+00.59, high-velocity shocks are destroying the molecule HNCO.
基金Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. This project was supported by G1999075405 of NKBRSF, 10128306 10133020 of NSFC.
文摘Using the 13.7m radio telescope at Delingha, the millimeter-wave radioobservatory of Purple Mountain Observatory, we made mapping observations in ^(12)CO J = 1 - 0 linetowards IRAS 05417+0907, located in the bright-rimmed cloud (BRC) BRC18. We used a 7 x 7 grid with1' spacing, a finer and larger grid than the one used by Myers et al. Our results show that there isa bipolar outflow near IRAS 05417+0907. Combining with the observations at other wave bands, wefind that the star formation process in this region is triggered by radiation-driven implosion. Thesignificant difference between the masses of BRC18 and the cores and the relatively large ratio ofassociated source bolometric luminosity to the mass show that the star formation in BRC18 may betaking place in a sequence.