A SCUBA survey of Orion – the low-mass end of the core mass function

We have re-analysed all of the Submillimetre Common User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) archive data of the Orion star-forming regions. We have put together all of the data taken at different times by different groups. Consequently, we have constructed the deepest submillimetre maps of these regions ever made. There are four regions that have been mapped: Orion A North and South, and Orion B North and South. We find that two of the regions, Orion A North and Orion B North, have deeper sensitivity and completeness limits, and contain a larger number of sources, so we concentrate on these two. We compare the data with archive data from the Spitzer Space Telescope to determine whether or not a core detected in the submillimetre is pre-stellar in nature. We extract all of the pre-stellar cores from the data and make a histogram of the core masses. This can be compared to the stellar initial mass function (IMF). We find the high-mass core mass function (CMF) follows a roughly Salpeter-like slope, just like the IMF, as seen in previous work. Our deeper maps allow us to see that the CMF turns over at, ∼1.3 M⊙ about a factor of 4 higher than our completeness limit. This turnover has never previously been observed, and is only visible here due to our much deeper maps. It mimics the turnover seen in the stellar IMF at ∼0.1 M⊙. The low-mass side of the CMF is a power law with an exponent of, 0.35 ± 0.2 which is consistent with the low-mass slope of the young cluster IMF of 0.3 ± 0.1. This shows that the CMF continues to mimic the shape of the IMF all the way down to the lower completeness limit of these data at ∼0.3 M⊙.