Magnetic field structure in Serpens South. (26th April 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kusune, Takayoshi; Nakamura, Fumitaka; Sugitani, Koji; Sato, Shuji; Tamura, Motohide; Kwon, Jungmi; Dobashi, Kazuhito; Shimoikura, Tomomi; Wu, Benjamin
• Is Part Of: Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. Volume 71:Supplement 1(2019:Dec.)
• Publication Date: 2019-04-26
• Subjects: infrared: stars -- ISM: individual objects (Serpens South) -- ISM: magnetic field -- stars: formation -- techniques: polarimetric; Astronomy -- Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1093/pasj/psz040
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0004-6264

Abstract

Abstract: We made near-infrared polarimetric observations toward Serpens South. This region contains three dense filaments that are roughly parallel to one another. Using the histogram of relative orientations, the three filaments are found to be roughly perpendicular to the global magnetic field. The morphology of the plane-of-sky (POS) magnetic field and molecular gas suggests that the magnetic field plays an important role in the filament formation and evolution. Applying the Davis–Chandrasekhar–Fermi method, the POS magnetic field strengths are estimated to be 10–80$\, \mu$ G. The evaluated mass-to-flux ratios indicate that the center filament is magnetically supercritical, while the others are approximately magnetically critical. We speculate that the filaments are formed by fragmentation of a sheet-like cloud that was created through the gravitational contraction of a magnetized, turbulent cloud.