Schedule Aug 17, 2007
Turbulent Core Kinematics: Simulation vs. Observation
Stella Offner (UC Berkeley)

S. S. R. Offner1, M. R. Krumholz2, C. F. McKee1, 3 & R. I. Klein3,4
1. Department of Physics, U. C. Berkeley
2. Hubble Fellow, Princeton University
3. Department of Astronomy, U. C. Berkeley
4. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

In this study we investigate pre-stellar core properties in hydrodynamic self-gravitating isothermal AMR simulations with the code Orion, comparing the cases where turbulence is continually driven and where it is allowed to decay. We model observations of these cores in several tracer molecules, and from the modeled observations we measure the linewidths of individual cores, the linewidths of the surrounding gas, and the motions of the cores relative to one another. Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests show that some of these distributions are distinct in the driven and decaying runs, making them potential tools for determining whether observed systems have continued turbulent energy injection or not. We find that cores in the driven environment have smaller velocity dispersions than cores in decaying turbulence, in better agreement with observations. We also find that the core-to-core velocity dispersion in the driven case is sub-virial, while in the decaying it is virial.

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