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On the shape and completeness of the column density probability distribution function of molecular clouds | | Bastian Körtgen
; Christoph Federrath
; Robi Banerjee
; | | Date: |
7 Nov 2018 | | Abstract: | Both observational and theoretical research over the past decade has
demonstrated that the probability distribution function (PDF) of the gas
density in turbulent molecular clouds is a key ingredient for understanding
star formation. It has recently been argued that the PDF of molecular clouds is
a pure power-law distribution. It has been claimed that the log-normal part is
ruled out when using only the part of the PDF up/down to which it is complete,
that is where the column density contours are still closed. By using the
results from high-resolution magnetohydrodynamical simulations of molecular
cloud formation and evolution, we find that the column density PDF is indeed
composed of a log-normal and, if including self-gravity, a power-law part. We
show that insufficient sampling of a molecular cloud results in closed contours
that cut off the log-normal part. In contrast, systematically increasing the
field of view and sampling the entire cloud yields a completeness limit at the
lower column densities, which also recovers the log-normal part. This
demonstrates that the field of view must be sufficiently large for the PDF to
be complete down to its log-normal part, which has important implications for
predictions of star-formation activity based on the PDF. | | Source: | arXiv, 1811.2864 | | Services: | Forum | Review | PDF | Favorites | |
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