Other
Scientific paper
Dec 1998
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1998aas...193.8901c&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, 193rd AAS Meeting, #89.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 30, p.1381
Other
Scientific paper
This paper presents a summary of all 27 available sensitive Zeeman measurements of magnetic field strengths in molecular clouds together with other relevant physical parameters. >From these data input parameters to magnetic star formation theory are calculated and predictions of theory are compared with observations. Results for this cloud sample are: (1) Motions are supersonic but approximately equal to the Alfven velocity, which suggests that supersonic motions are likely Alfven waves; (2) The ratio of thermal to magnetic energy beta < 1, implying that magnetic fields are important in the energetics of molecular clouds; (3) Kinetic and magnetic virial energies are roughly equally important in balancing gravity; (4) Static magnetic fields appear to be insufficient by about a factor of two in supporting clouds against gravity, and there is no direct observational evidence for subcritical clouds; and (5) Magnetic field strengths scale with gas densities as a power law with an exponent of approximately 1/2; this agrees with the prediction of ambipolar diffusion driven star formation, but this scaling may also be predicted simply by Alfvenic motions.
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