be 2.4$\times$10$^4$ . This is more than a factor of two greater than would be obtained using a canonical fixed fractional abundance of and a factor three greater than would be obtained using this fractional abundance restricted to the high column density regions. We determine that half the mass of the cloud is in regions having column density below 2.1$\times$10$^{21}$ 2. The distribution of young stars in the region covered is highly nonuniform, with the probability of finding a star in a pixel with a specified column density rising sharply for $N(H_2)$ = 6$\times$10$^{21}$ 2. We determine a relatively low star formation efficiency (mass of young stars/mass of molecular gas), between 0.3 and 1.2 percent, and an average star formation rate during the past 3 Myr of 8$\times$10$^{-5}$ stars yr$^{-1}$.'
author:
- 'Paul F. Goldsmith, Mark Heyer, Gopal Narayanan, Ronald Snell, Di Li, and Chris Brunt'
title: 'Large–Scale Structure of the Molecular Gas in Taurus Revealed by High Linear Dynamic Range Spectral Line Mapping'
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INTRODUCTION
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The close association of young stars and concentrations within molecular clouds indicates that stars form in cloud cores, which are regions of increased density within the bulk of molecular clouds [cf. @beichman1986]. While 