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The SMC Super-Shells as Probes of the Turbulent Dynamics of the ISM

Itzhak Goldman
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Abstract

The spatial power spectrum of the HI 21 cm intensity in the Small Magellanic Cloud (Stanimirovic et al 1999) is a power law over scales as large as those of the SMC itself. It was interpreted as due to turbulence by Goldman (2000) and by Stanimirovic & Lazarian (2001). The question is whether the power spectrum is indeed the result of a dynamical turbulence or is merely the result of a structured static density. In the turbulence interpretation of Goldman (2000) the turbulence was generated by the tidal effects of the last close passage of the LMC about 0.2 Gyr ago. The turbulence time-scale was estimated by Goldman to be 0.4 Gyr, so the turbulence has not decayed yet. Staveley-Smith et al (1997) observed in the SMC about five hundreds of HI super shells. Their age is more than an order of magnitude smaller than the turbulence age. Therefore, if the turbulence explanation holds, their observed radial velocities should reflect the turbulence in the gas in which they formed. In the present work we analyze the observed radial velocities of the super shells. We find that the velocities indeed manifest the statistical spatial correlations expected from turbulence. The turbulence spectrum is consistent with that obtained by Goldman(2000).

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Itzhak Goldman. 2007-03-30. The SMC Super-Shells as Probes of the Turbulent Dynamics of the ISM. https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0703793

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