2015/05/12 by Kohji Tomisaka, Tomisaka, Kohji
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1505.02895
Astrophysical Journal in press
arxiv created 2015/05/12 · arxiv updated 2015/05/13
Filaments are considered to be basic structures and molecular clouds consist of filaments. Filaments are often observed as extending in the direction perpendicular to the interstellar magnetic field. The structure of filaments has been studied based on a magnetohydrostatic equilibrium model (Tomisaka 2014). Here, we simulate the expected polarization pattern for isothermal magnetohydrostatic filaments. The filament exhibits a polarization pattern in which the magnetic field is apparently perpendicular to the filament when observed from the direction perpendicular to the magnetic field. When the line-of-sight is parallel to the global magnetic field, the observed polarization pattern is dependent on the center-to-surface density ratio for the filament and the concentration of the gas mass toward the central magnetic flux tube. Filaments with low center-to-surface density ratios have an insignificant degree of polarization when observed from the direction parallel to the global magnetic field. However, models with a large center-to-surface density ratio have polarization patterns that indicate the filament is perpendicularly threaded by the magnetic field. When mass is heavily concentrated at the central magnetic flux tube, which can be realized by the ambipolar diffusion process, the polarization pattern is similar to that expected for a low center-to-surface density contrast.