306 research outputs found
Macroscopic and Local Magnetic Moments in Si-doped CuGeO with Neutron and SR Studies
The temperature-concentration phase diagram of the Si-doped spin-Peierls
compound CuGeO is investigated by means of neutron scattering and muon
spin rotation spectroscopy in order to determine the microscopic distribution
of the magnetic and lattice dimerised regions as a function of doping. The
analysis of the zero-field muon spectra has confirmed the spatial inhomogeneity
of the staggered magnetisation that characterises the antiferromagnetic
superlattice peaks observed with neutrons. In addition, the variation of the
macroscopic order parameter with doping can be understood by considering the
evolution of the local magnetic moment as well as of the various regions
contributing to the muon signal
Sub-Alfvenic Non-Ideal MHD Turbulence Simulations with Ambipolar Diffusion: II. Comparison with Observation, Clump Properties, and Scaling to Physical Units
Ambipolar diffusion is important in redistributing magnetic flux and in
damping Alfven waves in molecular clouds. The importance of ambipolar diffusion
on a length scale is governed by the ambipolar diffusion Reynolds
number, \rad=\ell/\lad, where \lad is the characteristic length scale for
ambipolar diffusion. The logarithmic mean of the AD Reynolds number in a sample
of 15 molecular clumps with measured magnetic fields (Crutcher 1999) is 17,
comparable to the theoretically expected value. We identify several regimes of
ambipolar diffusion in a turbulent medium, depending on the ratio of the flow
time to collision times between ions and neutrals; the clumps observed by
Crutcher (1999) are all in the standard regime of ambipolar diffusion, in which
the neutrals and ions are coupled over a flow time. We have carried out
two-fluid simulations of ambipolar diffusion in isothermal, turbulent boxes for
a range of values of \rad. The mean Mach numbers were fixed at \calm=3 and
\ma=0.67; self-gravity was not included. We study the properties of
overdensities--i.e., clumps--in the simulation and show that the slope of the
higher-mass portion of the clump mass spectrum increases as \rad decreases,
which is qualitatively consistent with Padoan et al. (2007)'s finding that the
mass spectrum in hydrodynamic turbulence is significantly steeper than in ideal
MHD turbulence. For a value of \rad similar to the observed value, we find a
slope that is consistent with that of the high-mass end of the Initial Mass
Function for stars. However, the value we find for the spectral index in our
ideal MHD simulation differs from theirs, presumably because our simulations
have different initial conditions. This suggests that the mass spectrum of the
clumps in the Padoan et al. (2007) turbulent fragmentation model for the IMF
depends on the environment, which would conflict with evidence ...Comment: 33 pages, 7 figure
Molecular cloud evolution. I. Molecular cloud and thin CNM sheet formation
We discuss molecular cloud formation by large-scale supersonic compressions
in the diffuse warm neutral medium (WNM). Initially, a shocked layer forms, and
within it, a thin cold layer. An analytical model and high-resolution 1D
simulations predict the thermodynamic conditions in the cold layer. After Myr of evolution, the layer has column density \sim 2.5 \times 10^{19}
\psc, thickness pc, temperature K and pressure K \pcc. These conditions are strongly reminiscent of those recently
reported by Heiles and coworkers for cold neutral medium sheets. In the 1D
simulations, the inflows into the sheets produce line profiles with a central
line of width \sim 0.5 \kms and broad wings of width \sim 1 \kms. 3D
numerical simulations show that the cold layer develops turbulent motions and
increases its thickness, until it becomes a fully three-dimensional turbulent
cloud. Fully developed turbulence arises on times ranging from Myr
for inflow Mach number \Mr = 2.4 to Myr for \Mr = 1.03. These
numbers should be considered upper limits. The highest-density turbulent gas
(HDG, n > 100 \pcc) is always overpressured with respect to the mean WNM
pressure by factors 1.5--4, even though we do not include self-gravity. The
intermediate-density gas (IDG, ) has a
significant pressure scatter that increases with \Mr, so that at \Mr = 2.4,
a significant fraction of the IDG is at a higher pressure than the HDG. Our
results suggest that the turbulence and at least part of the excess pressure in
molecular clouds can be generated by the compressive process that forms the
clouds themselves, and that thin CNM sheets may be formed transiently by this
mechanism, when the compressions are only weakly supersonic.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. For correct display of the tables,
download the postscript version. Animations can be downloaded from
http://www.astrosmo.unam.mx/~e.vazquez/turbulence/movies.htm
Dichotomy in the Dynamical Status of Massive Cores in Orion
To study the evolution of high mass cores, we have searched for evidence of
collapse motions in a large sample of starless cores in the Orion molecular
cloud. We used the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory telescope to obtain
spectra of the optically thin (\H13CO+) and optically thick (\HCO+) high
density tracer molecules in 27 cores with masses 1 \Ms. The red- and
blue-asymmetries seen in the line profiles of the optically thick line with
respect to the optically thin line indicate that 2/3 of these cores are not
static. We detect evidence for infall (inward motions) in 9 cores and outward
motions for 10 cores, suggesting a dichotomy in the kinematic state of the
non-static cores in this sample. Our results provide an important observational
constraint on the fraction of collapsing (inward motions) versus non-collapsing
(re-expanding) cores for comparison with model simulations.Comment: 9 pages, 2 Figures. To appear in ApJ(Letters
Interstellar MHD Turbulence and Star Formation
This chapter reviews the nature of turbulence in the Galactic interstellar
medium (ISM) and its connections to the star formation (SF) process. The ISM is
turbulent, magnetized, self-gravitating, and is subject to heating and cooling
processes that control its thermodynamic behavior. The turbulence in the warm
and hot ionized components of the ISM appears to be trans- or subsonic, and
thus to behave nearly incompressibly. However, the neutral warm and cold
components are highly compressible, as a consequence of both thermal
instability in the atomic gas and of moderately-to-strongly supersonic motions
in the roughly isothermal cold atomic and molecular components. Within this
context, we discuss: i) the production and statistical distribution of
turbulent density fluctuations in both isothermal and polytropic media; ii) the
nature of the clumps produced by thermal instability, noting that, contrary to
classical ideas, they in general accrete mass from their environment; iii) the
density-magnetic field correlation (or lack thereof) in turbulent density
fluctuations, as a consequence of the superposition of the different wave modes
in the turbulent flow; iv) the evolution of the mass-to-magnetic flux ratio
(MFR) in density fluctuations as they are built up by dynamic compressions; v)
the formation of cold, dense clouds aided by thermal instability; vi) the
expectation that star-forming molecular clouds are likely to be undergoing
global gravitational contraction, rather than being near equilibrium, and vii)
the regulation of the star formation rate (SFR) in such gravitationally
contracting clouds by stellar feedback which, rather than keeping the clouds
from collapsing, evaporates and diperses them while they collapse.Comment: 43 pages. Invited chapter for the book "Magnetic Fields in Diffuse
Media", edited by Elisabete de Gouveia dal Pino and Alex Lazarian. Revised as
per referee's recommendation
Turbulent Control of the Star Formation Efficiency
Supersonic turbulence plays a dual role in molecular clouds: On one hand, it
contributes to the global support of the clouds, while on the other it promotes
the formation of small-scale density fluctuations, identifiable with clumps and
cores. Within these, the local Jeans length \Ljc is reduced, and collapse
ensues if \Ljc becomes smaller than the clump size and the magnetic support
is insufficient (i.e., the core is ``magnetically supercritical''); otherwise,
the clumps do not collapse and are expected to re-expand and disperse on a few
free-fall times. This case may correspond to a fraction of the observed
starless cores. The star formation efficiency (SFE, the fraction of the cloud's
mass that ends up in collapsed objects) is smaller than unity because the mass
contained in collapsing clumps is smaller than the total cloud mass. However,
in non-magnetic numerical simulations with realistic Mach numbers and
turbulence driving scales, the SFE is still larger than observational
estimates. The presence of a magnetic field, even if magnetically
supercritical, appears to further reduce the SFE, but by reducing the
probability of core formation rather than by delaying the collapse of
individual cores, as was formerly thought. Precise quantification of these
effects as a function of global cloud parameters is still needed.Comment: Invited review for the conference "IMF@50: the Initial Mass Function
50 Years Later", to be published by Kluwer Academic Publishers, eds. E.
Corbelli, F. Palla, and H. Zinnecke
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