The Link between Magnetic Fields and Cloud/Star Formation
Abstract
The question whether magnetic fields play an important role in the processes of molecular cloud and star formation has been debated for decades. Recent observations have revealed a simple picture that may help illuminate these questions: magnetic fields have a tendency to preserve their orientation at all scales that have been probed - from 100-pc scale inter-cloud media down to sub-pc scale cloud cores. This ordered morphology has implications for the way in which self-gravity and turbulence interact with magnetic fields: both gravitational contraction and turbulent velocities should be anisotropic, due to the influence of dynamically important magnetic fields. Such anisotropy is now observed. Here we review these recent observations and discuss how they can improve our understanding of cloud/star formation.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1404.2024,
title = {The Link between Magnetic Fields and Cloud/Star Formation},
author = {Hua-bai Li and Alyssa Goodman and T. K. Sridharan and Martin Houde and Zhi-Yun Li and Giles Novak and Kwok Sun Tang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1404.2024},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication as a chapter in Protostars and Planets VI, University of Arizona Press (2014), eds. H. Beuther, R. Klessen, C. Dullemond, Th. Henning