Abstract
The nonlinear mass-CO luminosity law exhibited by virialized molecular clouds in the Galaxy obeying a certain size-line width relationship implies a scale-dependent ratio of CO luminosity to cloud virial mass. Using CO luminosity as a linear tracer of cloud mass is therefore likely to systematically underestimate molecular cloud mass, the discrepancy being greatest for smaller clouds. Many clouds reported to be gravitationally unbound are shown to be at least weakly self-gravitating and, considering observational uncertainties, may in fact be in approximate virial equilibrium. Magnetic fields not exceeding energy equipartition strength should not change the model predictions. 18 references.
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