Current Star Formation in the Perseus Molecular Cloud: Constraints from Unbiased Submillimeter and Mid-Infrared Surveys

We present a census of the population of deeply embedded young stellar objects (YSOs) in the Perseus molecular cloud complex based on a combination of Spitzer Space Telescope mid-infrared data from the Cores to Disks (c2d) legacy team and JCMT SCUBA submillimeter maps from the COMPLETE team. The mid-infrared sources detected at 24 μm and having [3.6] - [4.5] > 1 are located close to the center of the SCUBA cores, typically within 15'' of their peaks. The narrowness of the spatial distribution of mid-infrared sources around the peaks of the SCUBA cores suggests that no significant dispersal of the newly formed YSOs has occurred. This argues against the suggestion that motions of protostars regulate the timescales over which significant (Bondi-Hoyle) accretion can occur. The YSOs are found to have red [3.6] - [4.5] and [8.0] - [24] colors, but not comparable red [5.8] - [8.0] colors. The most deeply embedded YSOs are found in regions with high extinction, A_V ≥ 5, similar to the extinction threshold observed for the SCUBA cores. All the SCUBA cores with high concentrations have embedded YSOs, but not all cores with low concentrations are starless. From the above considerations, a relatively unbiased sample of 49 deeply embedded YSOs is constructed. Embedded YSOs are found in 40 of the 72 SCUBA cores, with only three cores harboring multiple embedded YSOs within 15''. The equal number of SCUBA cores with and without embedded YSOs suggests that the timescale for the evolution through the dense prestellar stages, where the cores are recognized in the submillimeter maps and have central densities of 5 × 10⁴-1 × 10⁵ cm^-3, is similar to the timescale for the embedded protostellar stages. The current star formation efficiency of cores is estimated to be approximately 10%-15%. In contrast, the star formation efficiency averaged over the cloud lifetime and compared to the total cloud mass is only a few percent, reflecting also the efficiency in assembling cloud material into the dense cores actually forming stars.