Virial theorem

Kinetic energy

Gravitational energy

The mean pressure inside a cloud is the surface pressure plus the weight of the material inside the cloud, reduced by the magnetic stresses.
Bertoldi & McKee 1992, McKee 1998

Poloidal Magnetic Fields

Flux

Magnetic critical mass

Sphere

Is constant if flux frozen to mass (Toroidal fields are confining force, reduce mag. Critical Mass)

Magnetic Field Support

magnetic energy:

magnetic flux:

magnetically supercritical magnetically subcritical

Alternative Formulation: Magnetic Mass

similarly: advantage: does not depend on cloud mass explicitly.

related to flux mass:

defines a critical field strength:

Critical Mass:

Bonnor-Ebert Mass: Largest gravitationally stable mass at exterior pressure for nonmagnetic sphere

Observations of magnetic fields show M/M ~2. Molecular clouds are magnetically supercritical!

Note also that Alfven Mach number

Are molecular clouds gravitationally bound?

Total Energy: Virial Theorem:

Without magnetic field,

E<0 when

Total interstellar pressure in the solar neighborhood: Of which 7000 due to cosmic rays, 3000 from magnetic fields leaving as the total ambient gas pressure

C / C+ CO
C+-CO transition layer ~ 0.7 mag A CO-cloud has AV > 2 mag, is therefore marginally bound. An H2 cloud may not. ...depending on UV and ambient pressure.

Giant Molecular Clouds in the solar neighborhood: If dynamically stable, then GMC are strongly bound! For clumps inside GMC:

The MC-ISM connection:

thermal pressure in GMC clumps ~ pressure in diffuse ISM: Ptot (ISM) ~ 21,000 cm-3 K Pth (ISM) ~ 4000 cm-3 K Pth (clumps) ~ 6000 (n/1000cm-3)(T/10K) cm-3 K ~ 0.05 Ptot (clump) Unclear nature of the interclump medium: IRAS: n< 3 cm-3 (must be warm). HI in the Rosette MC: n(HI) ~ 7 cm-3 (evidence for CNM?) Molecular Clouds may be in a 3-phase medium: H2, CNM, WNM UV propagates into GMC. Pressure equilibrium along magnetic flux tubes?

Anti-correlation btw. CO and HI ?

pressure-confined clumps
13

CO

HI

Blitz & Williams

Conclusion:
Molecular clouds are not a forth phase of the ISM, but the same processes that regulate the thermal pressure in the diffuse ISM may regulate the thermal pressure in the molecular clumps.

Effect on star formation:

1. Total pressure of ISM sets MC surface pressure, which limits mean total pressure in the MC. Limits density of clumps, rate of magnetic diffusion, core formation. 2. Thermal pressure sets minimum mass that can collapse:

Low-mass stars can form only in dense cores of self-gravitating clumps.

Comparing clumpiness in two Giant Molecular Clouds

CO contours on 100 m IRAS

Blitz & Williams 1998 http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~jpw/research/maddalena.html

13CO

Intensity Probability Density Function

exponential -> self-similar

steepening -> not scale-free

Blitz & Williams 1998

Fractal clouds are invariant under smoothing!

Blitz & Williams 1998

Bound clouds show signatures of characteristic scale: steepening of the column density profiles two-point angular correlation function of T Tauri stars departs from power law

Computer 2-D simulation of compressible magnetic turbulence:

hierarchical structure is a natural consequence of non-linear magnetic wave interaction.

Elmegreen 1999

800x640 cells, Alfven Mach = 10, no gravity, 2 thermal phases, clumps bound by ram pressure

This is an animated gif you can find at: Eve Ostriker: http://www.astro.umd.edu/~ostriker/research/clouds/project.html

Measure the importance of Gravity

recall mean pressure:

observable virial parameter

gravitationally bound external pressure-confined

recall

so rewrite:

Bertoldi & McKee 1992

Jeans mass is same for all clumps. All clumps are stable. Critical mass differs in each GMC. Small clumps are pressure-confined, massive clumps are self-gravitating. Only most massive clumps form stars. Indirect measure of B field.

Bertoldi & McKee 1992

Density, Pressure, and Jeans Mass of molecular clumps

strongly self-gravitating clounds / clumps are likely to show

equipartition between kinetic, magnetic, and gravitational energies:

critical mass:

Strongly self-gravitating clouds should be magnetically supercritical! Confirmed by Zeeman measurements. Small clumps are magnetically subcritical: cannot contract.

Clump-clump velocity dispersion in the Rosette MC

Blitz 1991

Broad emission lines indicate supersonic motions: 'turbulence' compressive and Alfven waves dampen via non-linear steepening:

turbulent dissipation time is comparable to free-fall time:

GMC lifetime ~ 20-50 Myr clump formation time ~ 2 tff(GMC) ~ 10-20 Myr

mass depletion rate: star formation rate in the galaxy :

Possible explanations:
M(H2) overestimated clouds are supported against free-fall collapse low star formation efficiency present epoch is unusual

likely source of support: outflows from young stars mw ~ 0.1-0.3 m* vw ~ 200-300 km/s tw ~ 100,000 yr

Dynamically regulated star formation:

(McKee 1989, Bertoldi & McKee 1996)

star formation rate

energy per mass

dissipation rate

star formation timescale

star formation rate

How do low mass stars (clusters) form in massive clumps?

gravity vs. ion-neutral drag:

ambipolar diffusion timescale:

star formation rate due to ambipolar diffusion

Equilibrium Photoionization-Regulated Star Formation turbulent dissipation offset by energy from YSO outflows, prevents collapse of mag. supercr. clouds. t*eq ~ 1/AV Low-mass star formation regulated by ambipolar diffusion. Photoionization by ISRF regulates ionization.

Generalizing model to entire GMC

(McKee 1989)

predicts equilibrium star formation timescale 200-400 Myr and a mean extinction 4-8 mag, independent of cloud mass! Explains the observed linewidth-size relation, using the virial relation:

Larson 1981 linewidth-size relation

Dame 1999

Dame 1987

Grabelsky et al. 1988

Grabelsky et al. 1988

Location of HII Regions in the Galaxy Molecular Clouds in the Galaxy:

Grabelsky et al. 1988 Based on data from Meinert, Diplom Thesis Bonn 1989

CO emission in the outer Galaxy (FCRAO Heyer et al. 1998)

1500 clouds: dN/dM ~ M-1.75 (M > 100 Msun)

M(<103Msun) = 108 Msun Mtot = 109 Msun local arm

GMC condense from HI clouds!

Perseus arm

Mass Spectrum of Giant Molecular Clouds

Williams & McKee 1997

most mass in largest clouds. Max. mass caused by some physical process.

Binney & Merrifield 1998 Fig. 9.19

Scoville & Sanders 1987

Binney & Merrifield 1998, Fig. 9.25

CO and HI distribution in the Galaxy

GMC must condense from HI clouds. (e.g. 150pc -> 30pc) Collisional agglomeration of smaller MC untenable. Spiral shock induced formation in some galaxies, not necessary. But all is different in Galactic Center!

BIMA survey of nearby galaxies.

Blitz & Williams 1999

Dame 1999

HI 'Envelopes' of Molecular Clouds

HI extinction ca.. 0.3-0.5 mag, diameter ~150-200pc (mean distance btw. GMC ~500pc) distinct structures remnants of formation or PDR layers.
Blitz 1991

Williams & Blitz

HI Arecibo (Kuchar & Bania 1993), CO Bell Labs (Blitz & Stark 1986)

In molecular ring the HI clouds may overlap (molecular surface density is 5x higher there!) Near Galactic Center: only 1% of gas is atomic. Inner 300 pc has high (x1000) pressure due to deep stellar potiential of bulge/bar: P/k = 107 cm-3 K, but star formation rate seems not to be affected.

Literature:

Alves J et al. 2001, Internal structure of a cold dark molecular cloud inferred from the extinction of background starlight, Nature, 409, 159 Bertoldi, F, McKee, CF 1992, Pressure-confined clumps in molecular clouds, ApJ 395, 140 Bertoldi, F, McKee, CF 1996, Self-regulated star formation in molecular clouds, in Amazing Light, A volume dedicated to Charles Hard Townes on his 80th birthday, ed. Chiao, Springer, p.41 Binney J, Merrifield M, 1998, Galactic Astronomy, Princeton U. Press Blitz, L, Williams, JP, 1998, Molecular Clouds in The Physics of Star Formation and Early Evolution, Kluwer, p.3 Cambresy, L 1999, Mapping of the extinction in giant molecular clouds using optical star counts, AA 345, 965 Clemens, DP et al. 2001 Galactic Molecular Gas: Larg-Scale Distribution, Kinematics, and Structure, in Tetons 4, ASP Conf Ser. Vol. 231, p.186 Dame, TM 1999, Large-Scale molecular surveys of the galaxy and M31, in The physics of the interstellar medium, ed. Ossenkopf Dame TM et al. 1987, ApJ 322, 706 Draine B, Bertoldi F 1996, Structure of stationary photodissociation fronts, ApJ 468, 269 Draine B, Bertoldi F, 1999, Heating the gas in photodissociaiton fronts, in The universe as seen by ISO, ESA SP-427 Elmegreen B 1999, Phases and structure of interstellar gas, in The physics of the interstellar medium, ed. Ossenkopf Grabelsky, et al. 1988, ApJ 331, 181 McKee, CF 1989 Photoionization-regulated star formation and the structure of molecular clouds, ApJ 345, 782 McKee, CF 1995 The Multiphase Interstellar Medium, in The Physics of the Interstellar Medium and Intergalactic Medium, ASP ConfVol.80 McKee, CF 1998 The dynamical structure and evolution of giant molecular clouds in The Physics of Star Formation and Early Evolution, Kluwer. p.29 Padoan P, Nordlund A 1999, A super-Alfvenic model of dark clouds, ApJ 526, 279 Solomon, PM, Rivolo, AR 1989, A face-on view of the first galactic quadrant in molecular clouds, ApJ 339, 919 Spitzer, L 1978Physical Processes in the Interstellar Medium, Wiley Williams, JP, Blitz, L, McKee, CF 2000, The structure and evolution of molecular clouds: from clumps to cores to the IMF, in Protostars and Planets IV, Eds. Mannings et al, U. Of Arizona Press