NGC 6334 centers of star formation JHK photometry

In FIR-V an unexpectedly large number of bright red sources are detected which have CO absorption at 2.3{mu}m. The probability that these objects are Galactic field sources is very low and if they are giant stars associated with NGC 6334 their implied ages (>10^9^yr) are inconsistent with the many indicators of extreme youth in this region. We propose that they form a hitherto unrecognized population of high-luminosity pre-main-sequence objects.

Two objects with similar characteristics are also found in images of an area of the NGC 6334 molecular cloud to the north of FIR-V (SH-1). In FIR-V we also find evidence that the molecular outflow from the already known high-mass protostar has triggered intermediate-mass star formation via interaction with the local interstellar medium. Mass functions have been derived for the embedded stellar aggregates under the assumption that all sources lie on the main sequence unless otherwise indicated.

The effect of a population of pre-main-sequence objects on the derived mass function slopes is shown to be small. Embedded aggregates in NGC 6334 have stellar mass distributions similar to those found both in young visible clusters and in other embedded clusters. This suggests that the slope of the mass function is relatively insensitive to conditions in the star formation environment and that the solar neighborhood value applies to star formation regions on scales as small as 1pc and of ages less than 10^7^yr.