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Title: Developing an Evolutionary Sequence for the Earliest Phases of Star Formation

Abstract: Low-mass starless cores are the earliest observed phase of
low-mass star formation.They are identified via sub-millimeter dust
continuum and dense gas molecular lines, they typically contain a few
solar masses, they have sizes of approximately 0.1 pc, and they may
form one or a few low-mass (M~ 1 M_sun) stars. It is crucial to
understand the formation and evolution of these objects to set the
initial conditions for protostar and disk formation.Theoretically, the
basic core formation and evolution process is still debated between a
turbulent-dominated or ambi-polar diffusion-dominated model.
Observationally, a fundamental challenge is to determine the
evolutionary state of a starless core. I shall review the basic
processes that are used to develop a chemical evolutionary sequence
for low-mass starless cores and that breaks currently observed
degeneracies in the physical structure of the cores. I shall highlight
results from the Arizona Radio Observatory-Green Bank Telescope Survey
which has mapped a sample of 25 nearby starless cores in dust
continuum emission and 10 molecular transitions.