ISOSS22478 and ISOSS23053 images

We aim to study the dynamical and fragmentation properties at very early evolutionary stages of high-mass star formation. Employing the NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) and the IRAM 30m telescope, we observe two young high-mass star-forming regions, ISOSS22478 and ISOSS23053, in the 1.3mm continuum and spectral line emission at high angular resolution (~0.8'').

Resolving altogether 29 cores that are largely located along filament-like structures, we find that these cores follow a mass-size relation of approximately M~r^3^, corresponding to a constant mean density of roughly 10^6cm^-3^. The correlation of the core masses with their nearest neighbor separations is consistent with thermal Jeans fragmentation. Although the kinematics of the two regions appear very different at first sight -- multiple velocity components along filaments in ISOSS22478 versus a steep velocity gradient of more than 50km/s/pc in ISOSS23053 -- the findings can all be explained in the framework of a dynamical cloud collapse scenario.