Distance biases in the estimation of the physical properties of Hi-GAL compact sources – I. Clump properties and the identification of high-mass star-forming candidates

The degradation of spatial resolution in star-forming regions, observed at large distances (d ≳ 1 kpc) with Herschel, can lead to estimates of the physical parameters of the detected compact sources (clumps), which do not necessarily mirror the properties of the original population of cores. This paper aims at quantifying the bias introduced in the estimation of these parameters by the distance ef...