Simulations of Supersonic Turbulence in Molecular Clouds: Evidence for a New Universality

TL;DR

This paper uses large-scale 3D simulations to analyze supersonic turbulence in molecular clouds, providing evidence for a new universal scaling law and extending existing models to magnetohydrodynamic turbulence.

Contribution

It confirms the 1/3-rule for turbulence scaling with larger simulations and proposes a new universal approach for supersonic MHD turbulence.

Findings

Support for the 1/3-rule in larger simulations

Preliminary extension of the rule to MHD turbulence

Suggestions of a new universal scaling relation

Abstract

We use three-dimensional simulations to study the statistics of supersonic turbulence in molecular clouds. Our numerical experiments describe driven turbulent flows with an isothermal equation of state, Mach numbers around 10, and various degrees of magnetization. We first support the so-called 1/3-rule of Kritsuk et al. 2007 with our new data from a larger 2048^3 simulation. We then attempt to extend the 1/3-rule to supersonic MHD turbulence and get encouraging preliminary results based on a set of 512^3 simulations. Our results suggest an interesting new approach to tackle universal scaling relations and intermittency in supersonic MHD turbulence.