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Molecular clouds have power-law PDFs (not log-normal)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2016

João Alves ,
Marco Lombardi  and
Charles Lada
João Alves
Affiliation:
University of Vienna, Dept.of Astrophysics, Türkenschanzstrasse 17, 1180 Vienna, Austria
Marco Lombardi
Affiliation:
University of Milan, Department of Physics, via Celoria 16, I-20133 Milan, Italy
Charles Lada
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Mail Stop 72, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
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Abstract

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Contrary to common belief, the column density PDFs of molecular clouds are not described well by log-normal functions, but are instead power-laws with exponents close to two. We argue that the intrinsic functional form of the PDF cannot be securely determined below AK ~ 0.1-0.2 mag, limiting our ability to investigate more complex models for the shape of the cloud PDF.

Keywords

ISM: cloudsISM: generalISM: extinctionISM: structure
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 11 , General Assembly A29B: Astronomy in Focus , August 2015 , pp. 706 - 707
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2016 

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