Asymmetric line profiles in dense molecular clumps observed in MALT90: evidence for global collapse

Using molecular line data from the Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team 90 GHz Survey, we have searched the optically thick HCO⁺ (1–0) line for the "blue asymmetry" spectroscopic signature of infall motion in a large sample of high-mass, dense molecular clumps observed to be at different evolutionary stages of star cluster formation according to their mid-infrared appearance. To quantify the degree of the line asymmetry, we measure the asymmetry parameter A=[formula could not be replicated], the fraction of the integrated intensity that lies to the blueshifted side of the systemic velocity determined from the optically thin tracer N₂H⁺ (1–0). For a sample of 1093 sources, both the mean and median of A are positive (A=0.0830 ± 010 and 0.065 ± 0.009, respectively) with high statistical significance, and a majority of sources (a fraction of 0.607 ± 0.015 of the sample) show positive values of A, indicating a preponderance of blue asymmetric profiles over red asymmetric profiles. Two other measures, the local slope of the line at the systemic velocity and the δv parameter of Mardones et al. (1997), also show an overall blue asymmetry for the sample, but with smaller statistical significance. This blue asymmetry indicates that these high-mass clumps are predominantly undergoing gravitational collapse. The blue asymmetry is larger (A ∼ 0.12) for the earliest evolutionary stages (quiescent, protostellar, and compact H ii region) than for the later H ii region (A ∼ 0.06) and photodissociation region (A ∼ 0) classifications.