Description
Gravity, turbulence, and magnetic fields are thought to be the three main factors influencing star formation. In Peretto et al. 2023 the gravity and turbulence in a sample of star-forming clumps and their parent molecular clouds were investigated. The findings of this study were that clumps are dynamically decoupled from their parent molecular clouds - this result might indicate that the star formation process has a preferred spatial and/or density scale on which it occurs. It is unknown as to the physical reason why this decoupling may take place. I have begun research into the magnetic field counterpart of the Peretto et al. 2023 study, aiming to observe whether the dynamical decoupling is accompanied by a decoupling in the properties of the magnetic field at the different spatial scales of cloud and clump. I present my research comparing the magnetic fields of a sample of infrared dark clouds and their parent molecular clouds using dust polarisation data from JCMT POL-2 and Planck respectively. It is found that the direction of the magnetic field within the small-scale dense clumps tends to differ from the direction of the magnetic field in the large-scale more diffuse clouds for all samples. A HRO analysis also shows links between correspondence of the magnetic field vector with the intensity gradient and the virial ratio parameter. These results seem to imply that the star-forming clumps are indeed magnetically decoupled from their parent molecular clouds, in accordance with the findings of Peretto et al. 2023.
