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Star formation within the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) may be intimatelylinked to the orbital dynamics of the gas. Recent models suggest that starformation within the dust ridge molecular clouds (from G0.253+0.016 to Sgr B2)follows an evolutionary time sequence, triggered by tidal compression duringtheir preceding pericentre passage. Given that these clouds are the most likelyprecursors to a generation of massive stars and extreme star clusters, thisscenario would have profound implications for constraining the time-evolutionof star formation. In this Letter, we search for the initial conditions of theprotocluster clouds, focusing on the kinematics of gas situated upstream frompericentre. We observe a highly-regular corrugated velocity field in$\{l,\,v_{\rm LSR}\}$ space, with amplitude and wavelength $A=3.7\,\pm\,0.1$kms$^{-1}$ and $\lambda_{\rm vel, i}=22.5\,\pm\,0.1$ pc, respectively. Theextremes in velocity correlate with a series of massive($\sim10^{4}$M$_{\odot}$) and compact ($R_{\rm eq}\sim2$ pc), quasi-regularlyspaced ($\sim8$ pc), molecular clouds. The corrugation wavelength and cloudseparation closely agree with the predicted Toomre ($\sim17$ pc) and Jeans($\sim6$ pc) lengths, respectively. We conclude that gravitationalinstabilities are driving the condensation of molecular clouds within theGalactic Centre gas stream. Furthermore, we speculate these seeds are thehistorical analogue of the dust-ridge molecular clouds, representing theinitial conditions of star and cluster formation in the CMZ.

Seeding the Galactic Centre gas stream: gravitational instabilities set the initial conditions for the formation of protocluster clouds