Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Turbulence in the Interstellar Medium: a Retrospective Review
- Mechanism of Formation of Atmospheric Turbulence Relevant for Optical Astronomy
- Properties of Atomic Gas in Spiral Galaxies
- Turbulence in the Ionized Gas in Spiral Galaxies
- Probing Interstellar Turbulence in the Warm Ionized Medium using Emission Lines
- The Spectrum & Galactic Distribution of MicroTurbulence in Diffuse Ionized Gas
- Small Scale Structure and Turbulence in the Interstellar Medium
- What is the Reynolds Number of the Reynolds' Layer?
- Photoionized Gas in the Galactic Halo
- Turbulent Heating of the Diffuse Ionized Gas
- Cosmic Rays in Interstellar Turbulence
- Turbulence in Line-Driven Stellar Winds
- An Introduction to Compressible MHD Turbulence
- Turbulence in Atomic Hydrogen
- Supershells in Spiral Galaxies
- The Size Distribution of Superbubbles in the Interstellar Medium
- Large-Scale Motions in the ISM of Elliptical and Spiral Galaxies
- Vortical Motions Driven by Supernova Explosions
- The Intermittent Dissipation of Turbulence: is it Observed in the Interstellar Medium?
- Chemistry in Turbulent Flows
- Supersonic Turbulence in Giant Extragalactic HII Regions
- Turbulence in HII regions: New results
- Hypersonic Turbulence of H2O Masers
- Water Masers Tracing Alfvenic Turbulence and Magnetic Fields in W51 M and W49 N
- Turbulence in the Ursa Major cirrus cloud
- The Collisions of HVCs with a Magnetized Gaseous Disk
- The Initial Stellar Mass Function as a Statistical Sample of Turbulent Cloud Structure
- The Structure of Molecular Clouds: are they Fractal?
- Diagnosing Properties of Turbulent Flows from Spectral Line Observations of the Molecular Interstellar Medium
- Centroid Velocity Increments as a Probe of the Turbulent Velocity Field in Interstellar Molecular Clouds
- High-Resolution C18O Mapping Observations of Heiles' Cloud 2 – Statistical Properties of the Line Width –
- Observations of Magnetic Fields in Dense Interstellar Clouds: Implications for MHD Turbulence and Cloud Evolution
- The Density PDFs of Supersonic Random Flows
- Turbulence as an Organizing Agent in the ISM
- Turbulence and Magnetic Reconnection in the Interstellar Medium
- The Evolution of Self-Gravitating, Magnetized, Turbulent Clouds: Numerical Experiments
- Super–Alfvénic Turbulent Fragmentation in Molecular Clouds
- Decay Timescales of MHD Turbulence in Molecular Clouds
- Numerical Magnetohydrodynamic Studies of Turbulence and Star Formation
- Direct Numerical Simulations of Compressible Magnetohydrodynamical Turbulence
- Fragmentation in Molecular Clouds: The Formation of a Stellar Cluster
- Accretion Disk Turbulence
- List of participants
Centroid Velocity Increments as a Probe of the Turbulent Velocity Field in Interstellar Molecular Clouds
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Turbulence in the Interstellar Medium: a Retrospective Review
- Mechanism of Formation of Atmospheric Turbulence Relevant for Optical Astronomy
- Properties of Atomic Gas in Spiral Galaxies
- Turbulence in the Ionized Gas in Spiral Galaxies
- Probing Interstellar Turbulence in the Warm Ionized Medium using Emission Lines
- The Spectrum & Galactic Distribution of MicroTurbulence in Diffuse Ionized Gas
- Small Scale Structure and Turbulence in the Interstellar Medium
- What is the Reynolds Number of the Reynolds' Layer?
- Photoionized Gas in the Galactic Halo
- Turbulent Heating of the Diffuse Ionized Gas
- Cosmic Rays in Interstellar Turbulence
- Turbulence in Line-Driven Stellar Winds
- An Introduction to Compressible MHD Turbulence
- Turbulence in Atomic Hydrogen
- Supershells in Spiral Galaxies
- The Size Distribution of Superbubbles in the Interstellar Medium
- Large-Scale Motions in the ISM of Elliptical and Spiral Galaxies
- Vortical Motions Driven by Supernova Explosions
- The Intermittent Dissipation of Turbulence: is it Observed in the Interstellar Medium?
- Chemistry in Turbulent Flows
- Supersonic Turbulence in Giant Extragalactic HII Regions
- Turbulence in HII regions: New results
- Hypersonic Turbulence of H2O Masers
- Water Masers Tracing Alfvenic Turbulence and Magnetic Fields in W51 M and W49 N
- Turbulence in the Ursa Major cirrus cloud
- The Collisions of HVCs with a Magnetized Gaseous Disk
- The Initial Stellar Mass Function as a Statistical Sample of Turbulent Cloud Structure
- The Structure of Molecular Clouds: are they Fractal?
- Diagnosing Properties of Turbulent Flows from Spectral Line Observations of the Molecular Interstellar Medium
- Centroid Velocity Increments as a Probe of the Turbulent Velocity Field in Interstellar Molecular Clouds
- High-Resolution C18O Mapping Observations of Heiles' Cloud 2 – Statistical Properties of the Line Width –
- Observations of Magnetic Fields in Dense Interstellar Clouds: Implications for MHD Turbulence and Cloud Evolution
- The Density PDFs of Supersonic Random Flows
- Turbulence as an Organizing Agent in the ISM
- Turbulence and Magnetic Reconnection in the Interstellar Medium
- The Evolution of Self-Gravitating, Magnetized, Turbulent Clouds: Numerical Experiments
- Super–Alfvénic Turbulent Fragmentation in Molecular Clouds
- Decay Timescales of MHD Turbulence in Molecular Clouds
- Numerical Magnetohydrodynamic Studies of Turbulence and Star Formation
- Direct Numerical Simulations of Compressible Magnetohydrodynamical Turbulence
- Fragmentation in Molecular Clouds: The Formation of a Stellar Cluster
- Accretion Disk Turbulence
- List of participants
Summary
We present a comparison of histograms (or PDFs) of CO (2−1) line centroid velocity increments in the ρ Ophiuchi and ζ Ophiuchi molecular clouds with those computed for spectra synthesized from a three-dimensional, compressible, but non-star forming and non-gravitating hydrodynamic simulation. Histograms of centroid velocity increments in the two molecular clouds show non-Gaussian wings, similar to those found in histograms of velocity increments and derivatives in experimental studies of laboratory and atmospheric flows, as well as numerical simulations of turbulence. The magnitude of these wings increases monotonically with decreasing separation down to the angular resolution of the data. This behavior is consistent with that found in the phase of the simulation which has most of the properties of incompressible turbulence. This is consistent with the proposition that ISM velocity structure is vorticity dominated like that of the turbulent simulation. The ρ Ophiuchi molecular cloud contains some active star formation, as indicated by the presence of infrared sources and molecular outflows. As a result shocks may have important effects on the velocity field structure and molecular line shapes in this region. However, the ζ Ophiuchi cloud represents a quiescent region without ongoing star formation and should be a good laboratory for studies of interstellar turbulence.
Introduction
Early spectroscopic observations of interstellar lines of HI, OH, and CO have revealed that observed line widths (or velocity dispersions) in interstellar clouds are larger than thermal line widths expected for these low-temperature regions (see e.g. Myers 1997 and references therein).
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- Interstellar Turbulence , pp. 203 - 207Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999