High-mass starless clump candidates from ATLASGAL

Many HMSCs are associated with large-scale filaments. Some basic parameters were attained from column density and dust temperature maps constructed via fitting far-infrared and submillimeter continuum data to modified blackbodies. The HMSC candidates have sizes, masses, and densities similar to clumps associated with Class II methanol masers and H II regions, suggesting that they will evolve into star-forming clumps.

More than 90% of the HMSC candidates have densities above some proposed thresholds for forming high-mass stars. With dust temperatures and luminosity-to-mass ratios significantly lower than that for star-forming sources, the HMSC candidates are externally heated and genuinely at very early stages of high-mass star formation. Twenty sources with equivalent radii r_eq_<0.15pc and mass surface densities {Sigma}>0.08g/cm^2^ could be possible high-mass starless cores.

Further investigations toward these HMSCs would undoubtedly shed light on comprehensively understanding the birth of high-mass stars.