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| Paper: |
On the Gravitational Boundedness of Small Scale Structures in Molecular Clouds |
| Volume: |
365, SINS — Small Ionized and Neutral Structures in the Diffuse Interstellar Medium |
| Page: |
166 |
| Authors: |
Dib, S.; Kim, J. |
| Abstract: |
We investigate, in a set of 3D numerical simulations of driven, magnetized, isothermal, and self-gravitating molecular clouds (MCs), the statistical correlations between the energy ratios (thermal/gravity, and kinetic/gravity) of clumps and cores (CCs) identified in the simulations and gravitational binding indicators commonly used in observational studies such as the Jeans number, Jc, and the virial parameter, αvir. In the energy ratios, we consider the surface energy terms which account for the effects of the environment on the clump gravitational boundedness. We find that: a) Jc and the thermal/gravitational energy ratios are well correlated, b) αvir and the (thermal+kinetic)/gravity or kinetic/gravity energy ratios are poorly correlated, additionally affected by the ambiguity of the compressive or dispersive effect of the velocity field. This result suggests that the use of αvir estimates in the observations is only useful to assess the kinetic+thermal energy content of a CC and not its gravitational boundedness. Finally, we discuss briefly the possibility of measuring the kinetic energy surface term directly in the observations. |
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