The ALMA Survey of 70 μm Dark High-mass Clumps in Early Stages (ASHES). VIII. Dynamics of Embedded Dense Cores

We present dynamical properties of 294 cores embedded in twelve IRDCs observed as part of the ASHES Survey. Protostellar cores have higher gas masses, surface densities, column densities, and volume densities than prestellar cores, indicating core mass growth from the prestellar to the protostellar phase. We find that ~80% of cores with virial parameter (α) measurements are gravitationally bound (α < 2). We also find an anticorrelation between the mass and the virial parameter of cores, with massive cores having on average lower virial parameters. Protostellar cores are more gravitationally bound than prestellar cores, with an average virial parameter of 1.2 and 1.5, respectively. The observed nonthermal velocity dispersion (from N₂D⁺ or DCO⁺) is consistent with simulations in which turbulence is continuously injected, whereas the core-to-core velocity dispersion is neither in agreement with driven nor decaying turbulence simulations. We find a not significant increment in the line velocity dispersion from prestellar to protostellar cores, suggesting that the dense gas within the core traced by these deuterated molecules is not yet severely affected by turbulence injected from outflow activity at the early evolutionary stages traced in ASHES. The most massive cores are strongly self-gravitating and have greater surface density, Mach number, and velocity dispersion than cores with lower masses. Dense cores do not have significant velocity shifts relative to their low-density envelopes, suggesting that dense cores are comoving with their envelopes. We conclude that the observed core properties are more in line with the predictions of clump-fed scenarios rather than with those of core-fed scenarios.