Fractal 3-D simulations of molecular clouds

Details Fractal 3-D simulations of molecular clouds Fractal 3-D simulations of molecular clouds

Mar 1993

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1993a%26a...270..451h&link_type=abstract

Astronomy and Astrophysics (ISSN 0004-6361), vol. 270, no. 1-2, p. 451-461.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

38

Fractals, Interstellar Gas, Molecular Clouds, Space Density, Three Dimensional Models, Density Distribution, Gas Density

Scientific paper

We propose a number of methods to produce 3D simulations of the gas density distribution of molecular clouds. The methods make use of random number generation and of simple recursive construction rules dependent on a few parameters. A large number of simulations were produced by varying the parameters of these rules. The projected 2D images of the simulated clouds were compared to those of observed molecular clouds. The quantitative description of a simulation is approached via the fractal dimension D and the factor/f of the contour levels of the images, obtained from the relation (area) exp 1/2 = K x (perimeter) exp 1/D. From our measurements of the fractal dimension of the visual extinction contours of clouds of the Chamaeleon complex and from other results in the literature, D and K are found to be in the range 1.21-1.52 and 0.32-0.45, respectively. The simulated clouds that we obtained with D in the correct range were submitted to additional tests like the study of the normalized-mass vs normalized-radius relation, visual inspection of a perspective representation of the density distribution, and a study of the projected distribution of density peaks. The tests show that the simulated clouds have statistical properties similar to that observed ones. Theoretical reasons for D being in the interval 1.2-1.5 are discussed. Some examples of possible applications of our simulations are briefly discussed.

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