Wednesday, 1st October 2008, at 11am
at the JAC
Hua-bai Li
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
"Magnetic Fields versus Turbulence in Molecular Clouds"
ABSTRACT: The biggest open questions in star formation concern
mechanisms that oppose gravitational collapse and regulate star
formation. While turbulence and magnetic fields are almost ubiquitous
in molecular clouds, their relative importance is often the key
contrasting assumption between the major star formation
theories. Using multi-wavelength and multi-scale polarimetry
observations from JCMT, CSO, and SMA, we present observational
evidence of magnetic fields being a crucial player over a large range
of scales. I will also introduce a new method which allows us to probe
the magnetic field and turbulence in molecular clouds at the same time.
Relevant Paper:
Li & Houde, 2008,
"Probing the Turbulence Dissipation Range and Magnetic Field
Strengths in Molecular Clouds",
ApJ, 677, 1151
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