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arxiv 2201.05620 v2 pith:O7BLEOPF submitted 2022-01-14 astro-ph.GA astro-ph.SR

The Magnetic Field versus Density relation in Star-Forming Molecular Clouds

classification astro-ph.GA astro-ph.SR
keywords densitymagneticmathcalcloudsinitialfieldmolecularregime
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
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We study the magnetic field to density ($B-\rho$) relation in turbulent molecular clouds with dynamically important magnetic fields using nonideal three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations. Our simulations show that there is a distinguishable break density $\rho_{\rm T}$ between the relatively flat low density regime and a power-law regime at higher densities. We present an analytic theory for $\rho_{\rm T}$ based on the interplay of the magnetic field, turbulence, and gravity. The break density $\rho_{\rm T}$ scales with the strength of the initial Alfv\'en Mach number $\mathcal{M}_{\rm A0}$ for sub-Alfv\'enic ( $\mathcal{M}_{\rm A0}<1$) and trans-Alfv\'enic ($\mathcal{M}_{\rm A0} \sim 1$) clouds. We fit the variation of $\rho_{\rm T}$ for model clouds as a function of $\mathcal{M}_{\rm A0}$, set by different values of initial sonic Mach number $\mathcal{M_{\rm 0}}$ and the initial ratio of gas pressure to magnetic pressure $\beta_{\rm 0}$. This implies that $\rho_{\rm T}$, which denotes the transition in mass-to-flux ratio from the subcritical to supercritical regime, is set by the initial turbulent compression of the molecular cloud.

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  1. The dynamical origin of the magnetic field distributions in compressible turbulence

    astro-ph.GA 2026-07 conditional novelty 7.0

    Power-law tails in turbulent magnetic field PDFs arise from intermittent Poisson-distributed shocks convolved with a lognormal core, with tail asymmetry determined by the ratio of fast to slow MHD shocks.