The Relation Between Variances of a 3D Density and Its 2D Column Density Revisited
We revisit the relation between the variance of three-dimensional (3D) density ($\sigma^{2}_{\rho}$) and that of the projected two-dimensional (2D) column density ($\sigma^{2}_{\Sigma}$) in turbulent media, which is of great importance in obtaining turbulence properties from observations. Earlier st...
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Main Authors | , |
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Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
24.06.2024
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | We revisit the relation between the variance of three-dimensional (3D)
density ($\sigma^{2}_{\rho}$) and that of the projected two-dimensional (2D)
column density ($\sigma^{2}_{\Sigma}$) in turbulent media, which is of great
importance in obtaining turbulence properties from observations. Earlier
studies showed that $\sigma^{2}_{\Sigma / \Sigma_{0}}/\sigma^{2}_{\rho /
\rho_{0}} = \mathcal{R}$, where $\Sigma/\Sigma_0$ and $\rho/\rho_0$ are 2D
column and 3D volume densities normalized by their mean values, respectively.
The factor $\mathcal{R}$ depends only on the density spectrum for isotropic
turbulence in a cloud that has similar dimensions along and perpendicular to
the line of sight. Our major findings in this paper are as follows. First, we
show that the factor $\mathcal{R}$ can be expressed in terms of $N$, the number
of independent eddies along the line of sight. To be specific,
$\sigma^{2}_{\Sigma / \Sigma_{0}}/\sigma^{2}_{\rho/\rho_{0}}$ is proportional
to $\sim 1/N$, due to the averaging effect arising from independent eddies
along the line of sight. Second, we show that the factor $\mathcal{R}$ needs to
be modified if the dimension of the cloud in the line-of-sight direction is
different from that in the perpendicular direction. However, if we express
$\sigma^{2}_{\Sigma / \Sigma_{0}}/\sigma^{2}_{\rho / \rho_{0}}$ in terms of
$N$, the expression remains same even in the case the cloud has different
dimensions along and perpendicular to the line of sight. Third, when we plot
$N\sigma^{2}_{\Sigma / \Sigma_{0}}$ against $\sigma^{2}_{\rho / \rho_{0}}$, two
quantities roughly lie on a single curve regardless of the sonic Mach number,
which implies that we can directly obtain the latter from the former. We
discuss observational implications of our findings. |
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DOI: | 10.48550/arxiv.2406.17022 |