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[61.01] Dust Heating by the Interstellar Radiation Field in Models of Turbulent Molecular Clouds

T.J Bethell, E.G Zweibel (Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin, Madison), F Heitsch (Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, Munich, Germany), J.S Mathis (Department of Astronomy, University of Wisconsin, Madison)

We have calculated the radiation field, dust grain temperatures, and far infrared emissivity of numerical models of turbulent molecular clouds. When compared to a uniform cloud of the same mean optical depth, most of the volume inside the turbulent cloud is brighter, but most of the mass is darker. There is little mean attenuation from center to edge, and clumping causes the radiation field to be somewhat bluer. There is also a large dispersion, typically by a few orders of magnitude, of all quantities relative to their means. However, despite the scatter, the 850\mum emission maps are well correlated with surface density. The fraction of mass as a function of intensity can be reproduced by a simple hierarchical model of density structure.

We have also computed the ionization of the gas by ambient UV radiation and low energy cosmic rays. The reduced radiative field in the dense material where most of the mass resides has implications for chemistry and magnetic field transport.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: thomas.bethell@colorado.edu

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #2
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