The hierarchical interplay among gravity, magnetic fields, and turbulence in forming massive protostellar clusters remains elusive. We present high-resolution (∼14 arcsec ≃ 0.05 pc) 850 μm dust polarization and C18O line observations of Cepheus A using JCMT SCUBA-2/POL-2 and HARP. Our analysis reveals aligned gravitational (G), magnetic (B), and velocity fields (K), with an energy hierarchy of EG > EB > EK. Gravity, as the primary driver, induces gas flows and drags in B-field lines. Magnetic tension, as a secondary force, regulates turbulence, enabling ordered flows with an accretion rate of ∼ 2.1 ± 0.4 × 10−4 M⊙ yr−1. This challenges the conventional view of B-fields resisting collapse in the clump/hub scale, instead showing cooperation with gravity. The ∼0.6 pc clump-scale B-field (with mean PA ∼ 45{\deg}) aligns coherently with fields at cloud (∼5 pc), core (∼0.05 pc), and disk (∼2000 AU) scales, offering new insights into the role of magnetic fields in multiscale star formation dynamics.
@article{arxiv.2501.10280,
title = {Evidence for the gravity-driven and magnetically-regularized gas flows feeding the massive protostellar cluster in Cepheus A},
author = {Panigrahy Sandhyarani and Chakali Eswaraiah and Di Li and Enrique Vázquez-Semadeni and Gilberto C. Gómez and Travis J. Thieme and Manash R. Samal and Jia-Wei Wang and Shih-Ping Lai and Wen-Ping Chen and D. K. Ojha},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.10280},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
42 pages, 6 figures in the main text and 5 figures in the supplementary material, Published in Science Advances