Relative velocities between $^{13}$CO structures within $^{12}$CO Molecular clouds
Abstract
Velocity fields of molecular clouds (MCs) can provide crucial information on the merger and split between clouds, as well as their internal kinematics and maintenance, energy injection and redistribution, even star formation within clouds. Using the CO spectral lines data from the Milky Way Imaging Scroll Painting (MWISP) survey, we measure the relative velocities along the line of sight (V) between CO structures within CO MCs. Emphasizing MCs with double and triple CO structures, we find that approximately 70 of V values are less than 1 km s, and roughly 10 of values exceed 2 km s, with a maximum of 5 km s. Additionally, we compare V with the internal velocity dispersion of CO structures () and find that about 40 of samples in either double or triple regime display distinct velocity discontinuities, i.e. the relative velocities between CO structures are larger than the internal linewidths of CO structures. Among these 40 samples in the triple regime, 33 exhibit signatures of combinations through the two-body motion, whereas the remaining 7 show features of configurations through the multiple-body motion. The V distributions for MCs with double and triple CO structures are similar, as well as their V/ distributions. This suggests that relative motions of CO structures within MCs are random and independent of cloud complexities and scales.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2403.06475,
title = {Relative velocities between $^{13}$CO structures within $^{12}$CO Molecular clouds},
author = {Lixia Yuan and Ji Yang and Xuepeng Chen and Yang Su and Shaobo Zhang and Xin Zhou and Zhiwei Chen and Qing-Zeng Yan and Min Fang and Fujun Du and Yan Sun and Hongchi Wang and Ye Xu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2403.06475},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
16 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in AJ