Magnetic Field Structure of Dense Cores Using Spectroscopic Methods

Abstract

Abstract We develop a new “core field structure” (CFS) model to predict the magnetic field strength and magnetic field fluctuation profile of dense cores using gas kinematics. We use spatially resolved observations of the nonthermal velocity dispersion from the Green Bank Ammonia survey along with column density maps from SCUBA-2 to estimate the magnetic field strength across seven dense cores located in the L1688 region of Ophiuchus. The CFS model predicts the profile of the relative field fluctuation, which is related to the observable dispersion in the direction of the polarization vectors. Within the context of our model, we find that all of the cores have a transcritical mass-to-flux ratio.