Polytropes: Implications for Molecular Clouds and Dark Matter

2000/08/02 by Christopher F. McKee, McKee, Christopher F.
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0008046

From Darkness to Light/Young Stellar Clusters (ASP Conference Series, 7 pages)

arxiv created 2000/08/02 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01

Abstract

Polytropic models are reasonably successful in acounting for the observed features of molecular clouds. Multi-pressure polytropes include the various pressure components that are important in molecular clouds, whereas composite polytropes provide a representation for the core halo structure. Small, very dense (n~10¹¹ cm^-3) molecular clouds have been proposed as models for both dark matter and for extreme scattering events. Insofar as the equation of state in these clouds can be represented by a single polytropic relation (pressure varies as a power of the density), such models conflict with observation. It is possible to contrive composite polytropes that do not conflict with observation, but whether the thermal properties of the clouds are consistent with such structure remains to be determined.

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