THE EFFECTS OF RADIATIVE TRANSFER ON THE PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION FUNCTIONS OF MOLECULAR MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMIC TURBULENCE
- Astronomy Department, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 475 N. Charter St., WI 53711 (United States)
- Physikalisches Institut der Universitaet zu Koeln, Zuelpicher Strasse 77, D-50937 Koeln (Germany)
We study the effects of radiative transfer on the probability distribution functions (PDFs) of simulations of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in the widely studied {sup 13}CO 2-1 transition. We find that the integrated intensity maps generally follow a log-normal distribution, with the cases that have {tau} Almost-Equal-To 1 best matching the PDF of the column density. We fit a two-dimensional variance-sonic Mach number relationship to our logarithmic PDFs of the form {sigma}{sub ln}{sup 2}{sub ({Sigma}/{Sigma}0}) = A x ln(1+b{sup 2}M{sub s}{sup 2}) and find that, for parameter b = 1/3, parameter A depends on the radiative transfer environment. We also explore the variance, skewness, and kurtosis of the linear PDFs finding that higher moments reflect both higher sonic Mach number and lower optical depth. Finally, we apply the Tsallis incremental PDF function and find that the fit parameters depend on both Mach numbers, but also are sensitive to the radiative transfer parameter space, with the {tau} Almost-Equal-To 1 case best fitting the incremental PDF of the true column density. We conclude that, for PDFs of low optical depth cases, part of the gas is always subthermally excited so that the spread of the line intensities exceeds the spread of the underlying column densities and hence the PDFs do not reflect the true column density. Similarly, PDFs of optically thick cases are dominated by the velocity dispersion and therefore do not represent the true column density PDF. Thus, in the case of molecules like carbon monoxide, the dynamic range of intensities, structures observed, and, consequently, the observable PDFs are less determined by turbulence and more often determined by radiative transfer effects.
- OSTI ID:
- 22140117
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 771, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
THE COLUMN DENSITY VARIANCE IN TURBULENT INTERSTELLAR MEDIA: A FRACTAL MODEL APPROACH
INTERSTELLAR SONIC AND ALFVENIC MACH NUMBERS AND THE TSALLIS DISTRIBUTION