Abstract We present the serendipitous discovery of a nine-member system comprised of protostellar and candidate prestellar sources in ~350 au-resolution images from Complex Chemistry in hot Cores with ALMA (CoCCoA). The system is bound in a stability analysis, has a mean separation between pairs of 7930 au, and appears to have formed via the fragmentation of a single large-scale filamentary structure traced by 1.20 mm continuum and H13CO+ J = 3-2 emission. Two multiples within the nine-member system, a triple and a binary, have properties consistent with formation by core fragmentation on ~1500-1700 au scales. The hot core NGC 6334-43 is resolved into two components (ALMA2a/ALMA2b) separated by 618 au and driving a bipolar outflow traced by 12CO J = 2-1 and SiO J = 5-4 in ~1250 au-resolution archival ALMA data. Only one other source in the nine-member system is clearly protostellar: ALMA6a, which drives an outflow traced by 12CO. The outflow properties of ALMA2a/ALMA2b and ALMA6a are consistent with high-mass and low-mass Class 0 sources respectively. By fitting the CH3CN J = 13-12 emission towards ALMA2a, ALMA2b and ALMA6a, we derive Mvir = 4.5, 5.4 and 2.6 M⊙ respectively. The other six sources in the nine-member multiple have Mgas = 0.50-1.87 M⊙ and appear young, as indicated by their sparse mm-wavelength line emission and non-detection in published cm continuum observations. Our results highlight the potential of serendipitous discoveries in ALMA surveys to add to the small observational sample of young high-mass protomultiple systems.
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