The circumstellar environment of high mass protostellar objects. III. Evidence of infall

The results are presented of a molecular line survey to search for the spectral signature of infall towards 77 850 µm continuum sources believed to be candidate high mass protostellar objects. Up to six different transitions, HCO + J = 1 → 0, J = 3 → 2a ndJ = 4 → 3, H2CO 212 − 111, N2H + J = 1 → 0a nd H 13 CO + J = 3 → 2, were observed towards each source. Towards the peak of the 850 µm emission, N2H + was typically strong, with a peak antenna temperature of ∼1.5 K, with a typical linewidth of ∼ 2k m s −1 . The good agreement between the velocity and velocity width of the N2H + and H 13 CO + emission suggests that both species are tracing similar material in the sources. With respect to the velocity of the N2H + , there is a statistically significant excess of blue asymmetric line profiles in both the HCO + J = 1 → 0a nd H 2CO transitions. This excess reaches levels similar to that seen towards samples of low mass protostars, and suggests that the material around these high mass sources is infalling. We identify 22 promising candidate infall sources which show at least one blue asymmetric line profile and no red asymmetric profiles. The infall velocity is estimated to be in the range of 0.1 km s −1 to 1 km s −1 with an implied mass accretion rate of between 2 × 10 −4 M� /yr and 10 −3 M� /yr.