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Description
We sort 4683 molecular clouds between 10{deg}<l<65{deg} from the Bolocam Galactic Plane Survey based on observational diagnostics of star formation activity: compact 70{mu}m sources, mid-IR color-selected YSOs, H_2_O and CH_3_OH masers, and UCHII regions. We also present a combined NH_3_-derived gas kinetic temperature and H_2_O maser catalog for 1788 clumps from our own GBT 100m observations and from the literature. We identify a subsample of 2223 (47.5%) starless clump candidates (SCCs), the largest and most robust sample identified from a blind survey to date. Distributions of flux density, flux concentration, solid angle, kinetic temperature, column density, radius, and mass show strong (>1dex) progressions when sorted by star formation indicator. The median SCC is marginally subvirial ({alpha}~0.7) with >75% of clumps with known distance being gravitationally bound ({alpha}<2). These samples show a statistically significant increase in the median clump mass of {Delta}M~170-370M_{sun}_ from the starless candidates to clumps associated with protostars. This trend could be due to (i) mass growth of the clumps at dM/dt~200-440M_{sun}_/Myr for an average freefall 0.8Myr timescale, (ii) a systematic factor of two increase in dust opacity from starless to protostellar phases, and/or (iii) a variation in the ratio of starless to protostellar clump lifetime that scales as ~M^-0.4^. By comparing to the observed number of CH_3_OH maser containing clumps, we estimate the phase lifetime of massive (M>10^3^M_{sun}_) starless clumps to be 0.37+/-0.08Myr (M/10^3^M_{sun}_)^-1^; the majority (M<450M_{sun}_) have phase lifetimes longer than their average freefall time.
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