On the Measurement of the Magnitude and Orientation of the Magnetic Field in Molecular Clouds

We demonstrate that the combination of Zeeman, polarimetry and ion-to-neutral molecular line width ratio measurements permits the determination of the magnitude and orientation of the magnetic field in the weakly ionized parts of molecular clouds. Zeeman measurements provide the strength of the magn...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2003-11
Main Authors: Houde, Martin, Bastien, Pierre, Dotson, Jessie L, Dowell, C Darren, Hildebrand, Roger H, Peng, Ruisheng, Phillips, Thomas G, Vaillancourt, John E, Yoshida, Hiroshige
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Line of sight
Magnetic fields
Magnetism
Molecular clouds
Orientation
Polarimetry
Star formation
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Summary:We demonstrate that the combination of Zeeman, polarimetry and ion-to-neutral molecular line width ratio measurements permits the determination of the magnitude and orientation of the magnetic field in the weakly ionized parts of molecular clouds. Zeeman measurements provide the strength of the magnetic field along the line of sight, polarimetry measurements give the field orientation in the plane of the sky and the ion-to-neutral molecular line width ratio determines the angle between the magnetic field and the line of sight. We apply the technique to the M17 star-forming region using a HERTZ 350 um polarimetry map and HCO+-to-HCN molecular line width ratios to provide the first three-dimensional view of the magnetic field in M17.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.0311354