We present a 3 mm spectral line and continuum survey of L1451 in the Perseus Molecular Cloud .
These observations are from the CARMA Large Area Star Formation Survey ( CLASSy ) , which also imaged Barnard 1 , NGC 1333 , Serpens Main and Serpens South .
L1451 is the survey region with the lowest level of star formation activity—it contains no confirmed protostars .
HCO ^ { + } , HCN , and N _ { 2 } H ^ { + } ( J = 1 \rightarrow 0 ) are all detected throughout the region , with HCO ^ { + } the most spatially widespread , and molecular emission seen toward 90 % of the area above N ( H _ { 2 } ) column densities of 1.9 \times 10 ^ { 21 } cm ^ { -2 } .
HCO ^ { + } has the broadest velocity dispersion , near 0.3 km s ^ { -1 } on average , compared to \sim 0.15 km s ^ { -1 } for the other molecules , thus representing a range from supersonic to subsonic gas motions .
Our non-binary dendrogram analysis reveals that the dense gas traced by each molecule has similar hierarchical structure , and that gas surrounding the candidate first hydrostatic core ( FHSC ) , L1451-mm , and other previously detected single-dish continuum clumps have similar hierarchical structure ; this suggests that different sub-regions of L1451 are fragmenting on the pathway to forming young stars .
We determined the three-dimensional morphology of the largest detectable dense gas structures to be relatively ellipsoidal compared to other CLASSy regions , which appeared more flattened at largest scales .
A virial analysis shows the most centrally condensed dust structures are likely unstable against collapse .
Additionally , we identify a new spherical , centrally condensed N _ { 2 } H ^ { + } feature that could be a new FHSC candidate .
The overall results suggest L1451 is a young region starting to form its generation of stars within turbulent , hierarchical structures .