TY - JOUR
T1 - A method for reconstructing the PDF of a 3D turbulent density field from 2D observations
AU - Brunt, Christopher M.
AU - Federrath, Christoph
AU - Price, Daniel J.
PY - 2010/6
Y1 - 2010/6
N2 - We introduce a method for calculating the probability density function (PDF) of a turbulent density field in three dimensions using only information contained in the projected two-dimensional column density field. We test the method by applying it to numerical simulations of hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in molecular clouds. To a good approximation, the PDF of log(normalized column density) is a compressed, shifted version of the PDF of log(normalized density). The degree of compression can be determined observationally from the column density power spectrum, under the assumption of statistical isotropy of the turbulence.
AB - We introduce a method for calculating the probability density function (PDF) of a turbulent density field in three dimensions using only information contained in the projected two-dimensional column density field. We test the method by applying it to numerical simulations of hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in molecular clouds. To a good approximation, the PDF of log(normalized column density) is a compressed, shifted version of the PDF of log(normalized density). The degree of compression can be determined observationally from the column density power spectrum, under the assumption of statistical isotropy of the turbulence.
KW - ISM: clouds
KW - ISM: kinematics and dynamics
KW - MHD
KW - Methods: statistical
KW - Turbulence
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=78751477326&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/j.1745-3933.2010.00858.x
DO - 10.1111/j.1745-3933.2010.00858.x
M3 - Letter
SN - 1745-3925
VL - 405
SP - L56-L60
JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
IS - 1
ER -