Searcharxiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · astro-ph/0311354

On the Measurement of the Magnitude and Orientation of the Magnetic Field in Molecular Clouds

Martin Houde·Pierre Bastien·Jessie L. Dotson·C. Darren Dowell·Roger H. Hildebrand·Ruisheng Peng·Thomas G. Phillips·John E. Vaillancourt·Hiroshige Yoshida
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

We demonstrate that the combination of Zeeman, polarimetry and ion-to-neutral molecular line width ratio measurements permits the determination of the magnitude and orientation of the magnetic field in the weakly ionized parts of molecular clouds. Zeeman measurements provide the strength of the magnetic field along the line of sight, polarimetry measurements give the field orientation in the plane of the sky and the ion-to-neutral molecular line width ratio determines the angle between the magnetic field and the line of sight. We apply the technique to the M17 star-forming region using a HERTZ 350 um polarimetry map and HCO+-to-HCN molecular line width ratios to provide the first three-dimensional view of the magnetic field in M17.

Explore related subjects

astro-ph

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Martin Houde, Pierre Bastien, Jessie L. Dotson, C. Darren Dowell, Roger H. Hildebrand, Ruisheng Peng, Thomas G. Phillips, John E. Vaillancourt, Hiroshige Yoshida. 2003-11-15. On the Measurement of the Magnitude and Orientation of the Magnetic Field in Molecular Clouds. https://doi.org/10.1086/339356

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2024

A survey of debris trails from short-period comets

We observed 34 comets using the 24 micron camera on the Spitzer Space Telescope. Each image contains the nucleus and covers at least 10^6 km of each comet's orbit. Debris trails due to mm-sized or larger particles were found along the orbits of 27 comets; 4 comets had small-particle dust tails and a viewing geometry that made debris trails impossible to distinguish; and only 3 had no debris trail despite favorable observing conditions. There are now 30 Jupiter-family comets with known debris trails, of which 22 are reported in this paper for the first time. The detection rate is >80%, indicating that debris trails are a generic feature of short-period comets. By comparison to orbital calculations for particles of a range of sizes ejected over 2 yr prior to observation, we find that particles comprising 4 debris trails are typically mm-sized while the remainder of the debris trails require particles larger than this. The lower-limit masses of the debris trails are typically 10^11 g, and the median mass loss rate is 2 kg/s. The mass-loss rate in trail particles is comparable to that inferred from OH production rates and larger than that inferred from visible-light scattering in comae.

astro-ph↗
arXiv2024

Deformation procedure for scalar fields in cosmology

This work offers an extension of the deformation procedure introduced in field theory to the case of standard cosmology in the presence of real scalar field in flat space-time. The procedure is shown to work for many models, which give rise to several different cosmic scenarios, evolving under the presence of first-order differential equations which solve the corresponding equations of motion very appropriately.

astro-ph↗