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S.-P. Lai (UIUC and JPL), R. M. Crutcher (UIUC), J. M. Girart (U. de Barcelona)
Magnetic fields are thought to play a significant role in all stages of star formation. However, there are few observations that measure magnetic fields at the relevant scale for the star formation process. In this talk, I will present the results from a survey of linear polarization in molecular cores at 1.3 mm wavelength with the BIMA millimeter interferometer. The observations achieve angular resolution up to 2", which is more than 5 times better than previous single-dish observations. The improvement in angular resolution allows me to investigate detailed magnetic field morphology and obtain reliable values for the dispersion of the polarization angles. The analysis in the dispersion of the polarization angles further provides estimates for the magnetic field strengths in the plane of sky, the upper limit of the mass-to-flux ratios, and the turbulent to magnetic energy ratios. I will discuss the implications of our new results for star formation.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: slai@astro.uiuc.edu