Multi-phase Turbulence Density Power Spectra in the Perseus Molecular Cloud

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal 2018-04, Vol.856 (2), p.136
• Main Authors: Pingel, N. M., Lee, Min-Young, Burkhart, Blakesley, Stanimirovi, Sne ana
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Astrophysics; Chemical effects; Density; Depletion; Dust; Gravitation; Interstellar matter; Interstellar medium; ISM: clouds; ISM: structure; magnetohydrodynamics (MHD); Molecular clouds; Opacity; Organic chemistry; Power spectra; Slopes; Tracers; Turbulence
• ISSN: 0004-637X; 1538-4357
• DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aab34b

We derive two-dimensional spatial power spectra of four distinct interstellar medium tracers, H i, 12CO(J = 1-0), 13CO(J = 1-0), and dust, in the Perseus molecular cloud, covering linear scales ranging from ∼0.1 pc to ∼90 pc. Among the four tracers, we find the steepest slopes of −3.23 0.05 and −3.22 0.05 for the uncorrected and opacity-corrected H i column density images. This result suggests that the H i in and around Perseus traces a non-gravitating, transonic medium on average, with a negligible effect from opacity. On the other hand, we measure the shallowest slope of −2.72 0.12 for the 2MASS dust extinction data and interpret this as the signature of a self-gravitating, supersonic medium. Possible variations in the dust-to-gas ratio likely do not alter our conclusion. Finally, we derive slopes of −3.08 0.08 and −2.88 0.07 for the 12CO(1-0) and 13CO(1-0) integrated intensity images. Based on theoretical predictions for an optically thick medium, we interpret these slopes of roughly −3 as implying that both CO lines are susceptible to the opacity effect. While simple tests for the impact of CO formation and depletion indicate that the measured slopes of 12CO(1-0) and 13CO(1-0) are not likely affected by these chemical effects, our results generally suggest that chemically more complex and/or fully optically thick media may not be a reliable observational tracer for characterizing turbulence.