The Role of Magnetic Fields in the Stability and Fragmentation of Filamentary Molecular Clouds: Two Case Studies at OMC-3 and OMC-4

TL;DR

This study investigates the magnetic field influence on the stability and fragmentation of filamentary molecular clouds in Orion A, revealing different magnetic regimes in OMC-3 and OMC-4 and their implications for star formation.

Contribution

It provides the first polarization map of OMC-4 and compares magnetic properties of two regions, highlighting their different roles in star formation processes.

Findings

OMC-3 is magnetically supercritical and in gravitational collapse.

OMC-4 is generally magnetically subcritical with fewer YSOs.

Magnetic fields influence cloud stability and star formation activity.

Abstract

We present the stability analysis of two regions, OMC-3 and OMC-4, in the massive and long molecular cloud complex of Orion A. We obtained $214~\mu$m HAWC+/SOFIA polarization data, and we make use of archival data for the column density and C$^{18}$O (1-0) emission line. We find clear depolarization in both observed regions and that the polarization fraction is anti-correlated with the column density and the polarization-angle dispersion function. We find that the filamentary cloud and dense clumps in OMC-3 are magnetically supercritical and strongly subvirial. This region should be in the gravitational collapse phase and is consistent with many young stellar objects (YSOs) forming in the region. Our histogram of relative orientations (HROs) analysis shows that the magnetic field is dynamically sub-dominant in the dense gas structures of OMC-3. We present the first polarization map of OMC-4. We find that the observed region is generally magnetically subcritical except for an elongated dense core, which could be a result of projection effect of a filamentary structure aligned close to the line-of-sight. The relative large velocity dispersion and the unusual positive shape parameters at high column densities in the HROs analysis suggest that our viewing angle may be close to axes of filamentary substructures in OMC-4. The dominating strong magnetic field in OMC-4 is unfavorable for star formation and is consistent with much fewer YSOs than in OMC-3.