Abstract
We use a new contour-based map analysis technique to measure the mass and size of molecular cloud fragments continuously over a wide range of spatial scales (0.05 < r / pc < 10), i.e., from the scale of dense cores to those of entire clouds. The present paper presents the method via a detailed exploration of the Perseus Molecular Cloud. Dust extinction and emission data are combined to yield reliable scale-dependent measurements of mass. This scale-independent analysis approach is useful for several reasons. First, it provides a more comprehensive characterization of a map (i.e., not biased towards a particular spatial scale). Such a lack of bias is extremely useful for the joint analysis of many data sets taken with different spatial resolution. This includes comparisons between different cloud complexes. Second, the multi-scale mass-size data constitutes a unique resource to derive slopes of mass-size laws (via power-law fits). Such slopes provide singular constraints on large-scale density gradients in clouds.
Highlights
Some of the most fundamental properties of molecular clouds are the mass and size of these clouds and their substructure
Mass-size slopes and intercepts can be derived. We describe how these data contribute to critical fields of star formation research
This approach permits a continuous characterization of cloud structure across a large range of spatial scales
Summary
Some of the most fundamental properties of molecular clouds are the mass and size of these clouds and their substructure. Not know much about the relation between the masses and sizes of cores, clumps, and clouds: traditionally, every domain is characterized and analyzed separately. As a result, it is still not known how the core densities (and star-formation properties) relate to the state of the surrounding cloud. Larson (1981) presented one of the first studies of such relations. He concluded (in his Eq 5) that the mass contained within the radius r obeys a power-law, m(r) = 460 M⊙ (r/pc)1.9
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