Bibcode
Fissel, L. M.; Ade, Peter; Angilè, Francesco E.; Ashton, Peter; Benton, Steven J.; Devlin, Mark J.; Dober, Bradley; Fukui, Yasuo; Galitzki, Nicholas B.; Gandilo, Natalie; Klein, J. R.; Li, Zhi-Yun; Korotkov, Andrei; Martin, Peter G.; Matthews, Tristan; Moncelsi, Lorenzo; nakamura, fumitaka; Barth Netterfield, Calvin; Novak, Giles; Pascale, Enzo; Poidevin, F.; Pereira Santos, Fábio; Savini, Giorgio; Scott, Douglas; Shariff, Jamil; Soler, Juan D.; Thomas, Nicholas; tucker, carole; Tucker, Gregory S.; Ward-Thompson, Derek
Referencia bibliográfica
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #227, id.#409.01
Fecha de publicación:
1
2016
Número de citas
0
Número de citas referidas
0
Descripción
A key outstanding question in our understanding of star formation is
whether magnetic fields provide support against the gravitational
collapse of their parent molecular clouds and cores. Direct measurement
of magnetic field strength is observationally challenging, however
observations of polarized thermal emission from dust grains aligned with
respect to the local cloud magnetic field can be used to map out the
magnetic field orientation in molecular clouds. Statistical comparisons
between these submillimeter polarization maps and three-dimensional
numerical simulations of magnetized star-forming clouds provide a
promising method for constraining magnetic field strength. We present
early results from a BLASTPol study of the nearby giant molecular cloud
(GMC) Vela C, using data collected during a 2012 Antarctic flight. This
sensitive balloon-borne polarimeter observed Vela C for 57 hours,
yielding the most detailed submillimeter polarization map ever made of a
GMC forming high mass stars. We find that most of the structure in p can
be modeled by a power-law dependence on two quantities: the hydrogen
column density and the local dispersion in magnetic field orientation.
Our power-law model for p(N,S) provides new constraints for models of
magnetized star-forming clouds and an important first step in the
interpretation of the BLASTPol 2012 data set.