Magnetic fields in the close neighborhood of LDN 328 core

TL;DR

This study investigates the magnetic field structure around the LDN 328 core using dust polarization observations at 850 μm, analyzing magnetic morphology, strength, and stability across different spatial scales.

Contribution

It extends previous work by providing detailed magnetic field analysis in the vicinity of LDN 328 using JCMT/POL-2 data and advanced analysis methods.

Findings

Magnetic fields are aligned with the core's structure.

Magnetic field strength varies across regions.

The core is magnetically supercritical, indicating potential for collapse.

Abstract

Linearly polarized dust emission traces the plane-of-sky magnetic field structure, thus allowing us to investigate the role of magnetic fields in the formation and evolution of cloud cores. In this work, we present observations of dust polarization at 850 $\mu{\rm m}$ wavelength toward the LDN\,328 (hereafter, L328) core and its neighborhood regions, classified as R1, R2, and R3, using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) with SCUBA-2/POL-2. This study extends our previous work on magnetic fields in L328 across different spatial scales. We used the JCMT/POL-2 data in the near vicinity of the L328 core to study the magnetic fields in its nearby regions. We identified clumps in these regions using the \texttt{FellWalker} algorithm and derived the dust temperature and column density by fitting the spectral energy distribution (SED) using combined JCMT and \textit{Herschel} dust continuum maps. We analyzed the magnetic field morphology in the vicinity of the L328 core and employed the structure function analysis to determine the magnetic field dispersion angle. We used the modified Davis-Chandrasekhar-Fermi (DCF) method to estimate magnetic field strengths and also derived the mass-to-flux ratio and Alfv\'en Mach number.