CHEMISTRY AND FEEDBACK IN MASSIVE STAR FORMING REGIONS

Regions forming high mass stars (> 8 solar masses) exhibit a striking chemical diversity, from "hot cores" rich in complex organic molecules to cold, dense cores with little or no molecular line emission. The aim of this project is to characterize and quantify this chemical diversity using, in the first instance, a survey of high mass star forming regions conducted with the Submillimeter Array (SMA; the millimetre-wavelength interferometer on Mauna Kea). Using the large sample of uniform observations provided by this survey, the project will include developing efficient (semi)automated analysis methods for large interferometric datacubes and exploring statistical approaches to source classification. The results of the astrochemical analysis will be cross-correlated with tracers of other phenomena important to high-mass star formation, including outflow, ionizing, and radiative feedback.