Observations of magnetic fields surrounding LkH$\alpha$ 101 taken by the BISTRO survey with JCMT-POL-2

TL;DR

This study presents high-resolution measurements of magnetic fields around LkHα 101, revealing a strong, complex magnetic field that likely prevents gravitational collapse, with implications for star formation processes in the region.

Contribution

First high-resolution magnetic field observations around LkHα 101 using JCMT-POL-2, demonstrating a strong, sub-critical magnetic field influencing star formation.

Findings

Magnetic field strength ~115 μG in the region.

The region is sub-critical with λ≈0.3, indicating magnetic support against collapse.

Polarization fraction decreases near the B star, suggesting magnetic tangling and grain effects.

Abstract

We report the first high spatial resolution measurement of magnetic fields surrounding LkH$\alpha$ 101, a part of the Auriga-California molecular cloud. The observations were taken with the POL-2 polarimeter on the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope within the framework of the B-fields In Star-forming Region Observations (BISTRO) survey. Observed polarization of thermal dust emission at 850 $\mu$m is found to be mostly associated with the red-shifted gas component of the cloud. The magnetic field displays a relatively complex morphology. Two variants of the Davis-Chandrasekhar-Fermi method, unsharp masking and structure function, are used to calculate the strength of magnetic fields in the plane of the sky, yielding a similar result of $B_{\rm POS}\sim 115$ $\mathrm{\mu}$G. The mass-to-magnetic-flux ratio in critical value units, $\lambda\sim0.3$, is the smallest among the values obtained for other regions surveyed by POL-2. This implies that the LkH$\alpha$ 101 region is sub-critical and the magnetic field is strong enough to prevent gravitational collapse. The inferred $\delta B/B_0\sim 0.3$ implies that the large scale component of the magnetic field dominates the turbulent one. The variation of the polarization fraction with total emission intensity can be fitted by a power-law with an index of $\alpha=0.82\pm0.03$, which lies in the range previously reported for molecular clouds. We find that the polarization fraction decreases rapidly with proximity to the only early B star (LkH$\alpha$ 101) in the region. The magnetic field tangling and the joint effect of grain alignment and rotational disruption by radiative torques are potential of explaining such a decreasing trend.