NEAR-INFRARED-IMAGING POLARIMETRY TOWARD SERPENS SOUTH: REVEALING THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MAGNETIC FIELD

Journal Article · Fri Jun 10 04:00:00 EDT 2011 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/734/1/63· OSTI ID:21576644

Sugitani, K ^[1]; Nakamura, F; Tamura, M; Kandori, R ^[2]; Watanabe, M ^[3]; Nishiyama, S; Nagata, T ^[4]; Nagayama, T; Sato, S ^[5]; Gutermuth, R A ^[6]; Wilson, G W ^[7]; Kawabe, R ^[8]

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1. Graduate School of Natural Sciences, Nagoya City University, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya 467-8501 (Japan)
2. National Astronomical Observatory, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-8588 (Japan)
3. Department of Cosmosciences, Hokkaido University, Kita-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido 060-0810 (Japan)
4. Department of Astronomy, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8502 (Japan)
5. Department of Astrophysics, Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8602 (Japan)
6. Smith College, University of Massachusetts, Northampton, MA 01063 (United States)
7. Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 (United States)
8. Nobeyama Radio Observatory, Nobeyama, Minamimaki, Minamisaku, Nagano 384-1305 (Japan)

The Serpens South embedded cluster, which is located in the constricted part of a long, filamentary, infrared dark cloud, is believed to be in a very early stage of cluster formation. We present results of near-infrared (JHKs) polarization observations of the filamentary cloud. Our polarization measurements of near-infrared point sources indicate a well-ordered global magnetic field that is perpendicular to the main filament, implying that the magnetic field is likely to have controlled the formation of the main filament. On the other hand, the sub-filaments, which converge on the central part of the cluster, tend to run along the magnetic field. The global magnetic field appears to be curved in the southern part of the main filament. Such morphology is consistent with the idea that the global magnetic field is distorted by gravitational contraction along the main filament toward the northern part, which contains larger mass. Applying the Chandrasekhar-Fermi method, the magnetic field strength is roughly estimated to be a few x100 {mu}G, suggesting that the filamentary cloud is close to magnetically critical.

• OSTI ID: 21576644
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 734; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
CLOUDS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
FILAMENTS
INFRARED RADIATION
MAGNETIC FIELDS
NEAR INFRARED RADIATION
POLARIMETRY
POLARIZATION
RADIATIONS