Gravity or turbulence? – III. Evidence of pure thermal Jeans fragmentation at ∼0.1 pc scale

We combine previously published interferometric and single-dish data of relatively nearby massive dense cores that are actively forming stars to test whether their ‘fragmentation level’ is controlled by turbulent or thermal support. We find no clear correlation between the fragmentation level and velocity dispersion, nor between the observed number of fragments and the number of fragments expected...