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A.A. Goodman (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Yale University), P. Padoan (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
The Spectral Correlation Function (SCF) is a relatively new algorithm for analyzing the position-velocity information contained in large-scale spectral-line maps (see Rosolowsky, Goodman, Wilner,& Williams 1999, ApJ, 524, 887; Padoan, Rosolowsky, & Goodman 2001, ApJ, 547, 862). We have now applied the SCF to several different regimes in the ISM, and we are able to derive the following results. (1) The SCF is the most discriminating method we know of for comparing synthetic (numerical) and observed spectral-line data cubes. (2) Tests of various simulations against data using the SCF show that no simulation to date is completely realistic, but models where the magnetic field has less than its equipartition value do better than strong field models in molecular clouds. (3) Comparisons of numerical models with H I observations of the atomic ISM show that the models must, but do not yet, treat thermal effects thoroughly (Ballesteros-Paredes, Vazquez-Semadeni & Goodman, ApJ, submitted). (4) The SCF can, and has been, used to determine the scale-height of a nearly face-on galaxy observed in H I (e.g. the LMC, see Padoan, Kim, Goodman, & Staveley-Smith 2001, ApJL, 555, L33).
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