3D Continuum radiative transfer in complex dust configurations around young stellar objects and active nuclei II. 3D Structure of the dense molecular cloud core Rho Oph D

TL;DR

This paper models the 3D density and temperature structure of the Rho Oph D molecular cloud core using radiative transfer and novel methods, revealing complex, elongated shapes consistent with turbulent collapse theories.

Contribution

It introduces a new T(tau)-method for estimating 3D temperature distributions from optical depth in complex structures.

Findings

The core has a complex elongated density pattern with two peaks.

The 3D structure deviates from spherical symmetry and aligns with turbulent collapse models.

The T(tau)-method provides an approximate temperature estimate in complex dust configurations.

Abstract

Constraints on the density and thermal 3D structure of the dense molecular cloud core Rho Oph D are derived from a detailed 3D radiative transfer modeling. Two ISOCAM images at 7 and 15 micron are fitted simultaneously by representing the dust distribution in the core with a series of 3D Gaussian density profiles. Size, total density, and position of the Gaussians are optimized by simulated annealing to obtain a 2D column density map. The projected core density has a complex elongated pattern with two peaks. We propose a new method to calculate an approximate temperature in an externally illuminated complex 3D structure from a mean optical depth. This T(tau)-method is applied to a 1.3 mm map obtained with the IRAM 30m telescope to find the approximate 3D density and temperature distribution of the core Rho Oph D. The spatial 3D distribution deviates strongly from spherical symmetry. The elongated structure is in general agreement with recent gravo-turbulent collapse calculations for molecular clouds. We discuss possible ambiguities of the background determination procedure, errors of the maps, the accuracy of the T(tau)-method, and the influence of the assumed dust particle sizes and properties.