An Observational Method to Measure the Relative Fractions of Solenoidal and Compressible Modes in Interstellar Clouds

Autor:	Brunt, C. M., Federrath, C.
Rok vydání:	2014
Předmět:	Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
Druh dokumentu:	Working Paper
DOI:	10.1093/mnras/stu888
Popis:	We introduce a new method for observationally estimating the fraction of momentum density (${\rho}{\mathbf{v}}$) power contained in solenoidal modes (for which $\nabla \cdot {\rho}{\mathbf{v}} = 0$) in molecular clouds. The method is successfully tested with numerical simulations of supersonic turbulence that produce the full range of possible solenoidal/compressible fractions. At present the method assumes statistical isotropy, and does not account for anisotropies caused by (e.g.) magnetic fields. We also introduce a framework for statistically describing density--velocity correlations in turbulent clouds. Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS
Databáze:	arXiv
Externí odkaz:	http://arxiv.org/abs/1405.1285 Zobrazit plný text záznamu View this record from Arxiv