On the Scarcity of Dense Cores (n>10^5 cm^-3) in High Latitude Planck Galactic Cold Clumps

High-latitude (|b|>30^∘) molecular clouds have virial parameters that exceed 1, but whether these clouds can form stars has not been studied systematically. Using JCMT SCUBA-2 archival data, we surveyed 70 fields that target high-latitude Planck galactic cold clumps (HLPCs) to find dense cores with density of 10^5-10^6 cm^-3 and size of <0.1 pc. The sample benefits from both the representativeness of the parent sample and covering densest clumps at the high column density end (>1×10^21 cm^-2). At an average noise rms of 15 mJy/beam, we detected Galactic dense cores in only one field, G6.04+36.77 (L183), while also identifying 12 extragalactic objects and two young stellar objects. Compared to the low-latitude clumps, dense cores are scarce in HLPCs. With synthetic observations, the densities of cores are constrained to be n_c≲10^5 cm^-3, should they exist in HLPCs. Low-latitude clumps, Taurus clumps, and HLPCs form a sequence where a higher virial parameter corresponds to a lower dense core detection rate. If HLPCs were affected by the Local Bubble, the scarcity should favor turbulence-inhibited rather than supernova-driven star formation. Studies of the formation mechanism of the L183 molecular cloud are warranted.