Investigating the Influence of Radiative Feedback in the Bright-rimmed Cloud 44

Abstract Radiative feedback from massive stars plays a central role in the evolution of molecular clouds and the interstellar medium. This paper presents a multiwavelength analysis of the bright-rimmed cloud (BRC) 44, which is located at the periphery of the H ii region Sh2-145 and is excited by the massive stars in the region. We use a combination of archival and newly obtained infrared data, along with new optical observations, to provide a census of young stellar objects (YSOs) in the region and to estimate stellar parameters such as age, mass, etc. The spatial distribution of YSOs visible in the optical wavelength suggests that they are distributed in separate clumps compared to the embedded YSOs and are relatively older. Near-infrared spectroscopy of four YSOs in this region using the TANSPEC mounted on the 3.6 m Devasthal Optical Telescope confirms their youth. From spectral energy distribution fitting, most of the embedded YSO candidates are in their early stage of evolution, with the majority of them in their class II and some in their class I stage. The relative proper motions of the YSOs with respect to the ionizing source are indicative of the rocket effect in the BRC. The 12 CO, 13 CO, and C 18 O observations with the Purple Mountain Observatory are used to trace the distribution of molecular gas in the region. A comparison of the cold molecular gas distribution with simple analytical model calculations shows that the cloud is in the compression stage, and massive stars may be influencing the formation of young embedded stars in the BRC region due to radiative feedback.