ASHES. VIII. Dynamics of embedded dense cores

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 ({alpha}) measurements are gravitationally bound ({alpha}<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 N_2_D+ 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.