Analysis of Galactic molecular cloud polarization maps: a review of the methods

TL;DR

This paper reviews key methods for analyzing polarization maps of molecular clouds, highlighting their roles in understanding magnetic fields' influence on star formation and the potential of combining these tools for future research.

Contribution

It provides a concise review of the DCF, ADF, HROs, and P-IGR methods, emphasizing their combined use in studying magnetic fields in molecular clouds.

Findings

Methods are effective for analyzing magnetic fields in molecular clouds.

Combining methods enhances understanding of star formation processes.

Future experiments will benefit from these analytical tools.

Abstract

The Davis-Chandrasekhar-Fermi (DCF) method using the Angular Dispersion Function (ADF), the Histogram of Relative Orientations (HROs) and the Polarization-Intensity Gradient Relation (P-IGR) are the most common tools used to analyse maps of linearly polarized emission by thermal dust grains at submilliter wavelengths in molecular clouds and star-forming regions. A short review of these methods is given. The combination of these methods will provide valuable tools to shed light on the impact of the magnetic fields on the formation and evolution of subparsec scale hub-filaments that will be mapped with the NIKA2 camera and future experiments.