Structure analysis of interstellar clouds: II. Applying the Delta-variance method to interstellar turbulence

TL;DR

This paper enhances the Delta-variance method to better analyze interstellar turbulence, applying it to simulations and observations, revealing key structural scales and turbulence behaviors in molecular clouds.

Contribution

The paper introduces improvements to the Delta-variance analysis, enabling more accurate detection of structural scales and artifacts in interstellar turbulence data.

Findings

Prominent spatial scales identified in simulations and observations.

Artifacts from data reliability variations successfully removed.

A universal power law connects turbulence scales from 0.03 to 3 pc.

Abstract

The Delta-variance analysis is an efficient tool for measuring the structural scaling behaviour of interstellar turbulence in astronomical maps. In paper I we proposed essential improvements to the Delta-variance analysis. In this paper we apply the improved Delta-variance analysis to i) a hydrodynamic turbulence simulation with prominent density and velocity structures, ii) an observed intensity map of rho Oph with irregular boundaries and variable uncertainties of the different data points, and iii) a map of the turbulent velocity structure in the Polaris Flare affected by the intensity dependence on the centroid velocity determination. The tests confirm the extended capabilities of the improved Delta-variance analysis. Prominent spatial scales were accurately identified and artifacts from a variable reliability of the data were removed. The analysis of the hydrodynamic simulations showed that the injection of a turbulent velocity structure creates the most prominent density structures are produced on a scale somewhat below the injection scale. The new analysis of a rho Oph continuum map reveals an intermediate stage in the molecular cloud evolution showing both signatures of the typical molecular cloud scaling behaviour and the formation of condensed cores. When analysing the velocity structure of the Polaris Flare we show that a universal power law connects scales from 0.03 pc to 3 pc. However, a plateau in the Delta-variance spectrum around 5 pc indicates that the visible large-scale velocity gradient is not converted directly into a turbulent cascade.