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The Herschel view of the dense core population in the Ophiuchus molecular cloud

Herschel observations of nearby clouds in the Gould Belt support a paradigm for low-mass star formation, starting with the generation of molecular filaments, followed by filament fragmentation, and the concentration of mass into self-gravitating prestellar cores. With the unique far-infrared and submillimeter continuum imaging capabilities of the Herschel Space observatory, the closeby (d = 139 pc) Ophiuchus cloud was mapped at five wavelengths from 70 $μm$ to 500 $μm$ with the aim of providing a complete census of dense cores in this region, including unbound starless cores, bound prestellar cores, and protostellar cores. Taking advantage of the high dynamic range and multi-wavelength nature of the Herschel data, we used the multi-scale decomposition algorithms getsources and getfilaments to identify a complete sample of dense cores and filaments in the cloud and study their properties. The densest clouds of the Ophiuchus complex, L1688 and L1689, which thus far are only indirectly described as filamentary regions owing to the spatial distribution of their young stellar objects (YSOs), are confirmed to be dominated by filamentary structures. The tight correlation observed between prestellar cores and filamentary structures in L1688 and L1689 supports the view that solar-type star formation occurs primarily in dense filaments. While the sub clouds of the complex show disparities, L1689 being less efficient than L1688 at forming stars when considering their total mass budgets, both sub clouds share almost the same prestellar core formation efficiency in dense molecular gas. We also find evidence in the Herschel data for a remarkable concentric geometrical configuration in L1688 which is dominated by up to three arc-like compression fronts and presumably created by shockwave events emanating from the Sco OB2 association, including the neighboring massive (O9V) star $σ$ Sco.