A Magnetic Ribbon Model for Star-Forming Filaments

Abstract

We develop a magnetic ribbon model for molecular cloud filaments. These result from turbulent compression in a molecular cloud in which the background magnetic field sets a preferred direction. We argue that this is a natural model for filaments and is based on the interplay between turbulence, strong magnetic fields, and gravitationally-driven ambipolar diffusion, rather than pure gravity and thermal pressure. An analytic model for the formation of magnetic ribbons that is based on numerical simulations is used to derive a lateral width of a magnetic ribbon. This differs from the thickness along the magnetic field direction, which is essentially the Jeans scale. We use our model to calculate a synthetic observed relation between apparent width in projection versus observed column density. The relationship is relatively flat, similar to observations, and unlike the simple expectation based on a Jeans length argument.

6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in ApJ

References in corpus (6)

• Magnetically Regulated Star Formation in 3D: The Case of Taurus Molecular Cloud Complex
• On the nature of star-forming filaments: I. Filament morphologies
• Three-dimensional Simulation of Magnetized Cloud Fragmentation Induced by Nonlinear Flows and Ambipolar Diffusion
• The Role of Turbulence and Magnetic Fields in Simulated Filamentary Structure
• Structure and Stability of Filamentary Clouds Supported by Lateral Magnetic Field
• Induced Core Formation Time in Subcritical Magnetic Clouds by Large-Scale Trans-Alfvénic Flows

Cited by in corpus (17)

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• How the power spectrum of dust continuum images may hide the presence of a characteristic filament width
• The JCMT BISTRO Survey: Evidence for Pinched Magnetic Fields in Quiescent Filaments of NGC 1333
• The Effect of Magnetic Fields and Ambipolar Diffusion on the Column Density Probability Distribution Function in Molecular Clouds
• The widths of magnetised filaments in molecular clouds
• Universal Properties of Dense Clumps in Magnetized Molecular Clouds Formed through Shock Compression of Two-phase Atomic Gases
• The Magnetic Field versus Density relation in Star-Forming Molecular Clouds
• Different molecular filament widths as tracers of accretion onto filaments
• Unveiling the role of magnetic fields in an accreting filament onto a young protocluster
• CO Structures with Narrow Lines in Nearby Quiescent Regions