OVERALL DISTRIBUTION OF DENSE MOLECULAR GAS AND STAR-FORMATION IN THE TAURUS CLOUD COMPLEX

We carried out a survey for dense molecular clouds in the Taurus complex in the (CO)-C-13 (J = 1-0) molecular emission at 2.7 mm wavelength with two 4 m millimeter-wave telescopes at Nagoya University. We obtained 37,720 spectra at a 1'.9 (l) x 2'.0 (b) grid spacing with a 2'.7 beam. Total molecular mass is estimated to be similar to 6800 M(.). There are three massive clouds, HCL2, B18, and L1495, and 13 small molecular clouds. Most of the clouds are connected with each other at a low intensity level. Among 94 young stellar objects (YSOs) identified in the Taurus complex, 59 are revealed to be associated with dense clouds having molecular column density greater than 3 x 10(21) cm(-2). Molecular gas of highest column density is associated with the youngest invisible protostellar objects, suggesting that star formation takes place in gas with high column density. Fifty of the 59 YSOs are associated with the massive clouds, and the remaining nine YSOs with the small clouds. Star formation efficiencies both in the massive and small clouds show similar values, suggesting that we may not neglect the contribution of small clouds toward global star formation. The basic structure of the molecular gas is filamentary, and we identified similar to 30 filamentary components distributed as a network. This suggests the importance of the process of gas condensation into a filamentary shape.