Optical and submillimetre observations of Bok globules -- tracing the magnetic field from low to high density

TL;DR

This study compares optical and submillimetre polarimetry data of Bok globules CB3 and CB246 to trace magnetic fields across different densities, revealing consistent magnetic field orientations and insights into dust grain alignment.

Contribution

It demonstrates that optical and submillimetre polarimetry methods can both accurately trace magnetic fields in dense regions, challenging previous assumptions about grain alignment.

Findings

Optical and submillimetre polarimetry data show consistent magnetic field orientations.

Significant dust grain alignment exists in high-density regions.

Magnetic field orientation is offset by about 30 degrees from the globule's short axis.

Abstract

We present optical and submillimetre polarimetry data of the Bok globule CB3 and optical polarimetry data of the Bok globule CB246. We use each set of polarimetry data to infer the B-field orientation in each of the clouds. The optical data can only be used in the low density, low extinction edge regions of clouds. The submillimetre data can only be used in the high column-density, central regions of the clouds. It has previously been found that near-infrared polarisation mapping of background stars does not accurately trace the magnetic field in dense cloud regions. This may be due to a lack of aligned grains in dense regions. We test this by comparing the field orientations measured by our two independent polarimetry methods. We find that the field orientation deduced from the optical data matches up well with the orientation estimated from the submillimetre data. We therefore claim that both methods are accurately tracing the same magnetic field in CB3. Hence, in this case, there must be significant numbers of aligned dust grains in the high density region, and they do indeed trace the magnetic field in the submillimetre. We find an offset of 40$\pm$14 degrees between the magnetic field orientation and the short axis of the globule. This is consistent with the mean value of 31$\pm$3 degrees found in our previous work on prestellar cores, even though CB3 is a protostellar core. Taken together, the six prestellar cores that we have now studied in this way show a mean offset between magnetic field orientation and core short axis of $\sim30\pm$3 degrees, in apparent contradiction with some models of magnetically dominated star formation.