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| Formato: | Preprint |
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2026
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| Acceso en línea: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.12604 |
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| author | Pillai, Thushara G. S. Kauffmann, Jens Soler, Juan D. Heyer, Mark Myers, Philip C. Fissel, Laura M. Clemens, Dan Sugitani, Koji Lopez-Rodriguez, Enrique Nakamura, Fumitaka Giannetti, Andrea Seifried, Daniel Goldsmith, Paul F. Wiesemeyer, Helmut Ntormousi, Evangelia Franco, Gabriel Reissl, Stefan Menten, Karl M. |
| author_facet | Pillai, Thushara G. S. Kauffmann, Jens Soler, Juan D. Heyer, Mark Myers, Philip C. Fissel, Laura M. Clemens, Dan Sugitani, Koji Lopez-Rodriguez, Enrique Nakamura, Fumitaka Giannetti, Andrea Seifried, Daniel Goldsmith, Paul F. Wiesemeyer, Helmut Ntormousi, Evangelia Franco, Gabriel Reissl, Stefan Menten, Karl M. |
| contents | We present first results from SIMPLIFI (Study of Interstellar Magnetic Polarization: a Legacy Investigation of Filaments), a SOFIA/HAWC+ $214~μ\rm{}m$ polarimetric survey of Galactic molecular cloud filaments. We trace magnetic field morphology from the DR21 Main Ridge into surrounding sub-filaments at $\sim{}0.1~\rm{}pc$ resolution, extending polarimetric detections for the first time beyond high-column-density regions probed by prior submillimeter observations. We compare the plane-of-sky orientations of the magnetic field $\hat{B}_{\rm{}pos}$, the projected gravitational acceleration $\vec{g}_{\rm{}pos}$, and the intensity gradient rotated by $90^{\circ}$. The relative orientation of $\hat{B}_{\rm{}pos}$ and the rotated gradient transitions from preferentially parallel in sub-filaments to perpendicular in the Main Ridge at $N({\rm{}H_2})\sim{}2\times{}10^{22}~\rm{}cm^{-2}$, consistent with thresholds seen with Planck. This is expected in clouds formed from strongly magnetized, sub-Alfvenic, magnetically sub-critical gas. We find region-to-region and pixel-to-pixel variations at fixed column density, indicating that column density alone is not sufficient to encode changes in magnetic field structure.
Our central finding is that $\vec{g}_{\rm{}pos}$ and $\hat{B}_{\rm{}pos}$ remain aligned throughout the cloud regardless of column density or environment, unlike the environment-dependent behavior of either quantity vs. the intensity gradient. This persistent alignment is consistent with magnetically-guided accretion: sub-filaments channel material along field lines at several $10^{-3}\,M_{\odot}\,\rm{}yr^{-1}$, sufficient to assemble the Ridge within $\sim{}1~\rm{}Myr$ and sustain high-mass star formation. The framework also explains why observed radial velocities $\sim{}2~\rm{}km\,s^{-1}$ fall well below free-fall expectations $\sim{}8~\rm{}km\,s^{-1}$ due to projection effects. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_12604 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | SIMPLIFI -- Study of Interstellar Magnetic Polarization: a Legacy Investigation of Filaments. I. Magnetically-Guided Accretion onto the DR21 Ridge Pillai, Thushara G. S. Kauffmann, Jens Soler, Juan D. Heyer, Mark Myers, Philip C. Fissel, Laura M. Clemens, Dan Sugitani, Koji Lopez-Rodriguez, Enrique Nakamura, Fumitaka Giannetti, Andrea Seifried, Daniel Goldsmith, Paul F. Wiesemeyer, Helmut Ntormousi, Evangelia Franco, Gabriel Reissl, Stefan Menten, Karl M. Astrophysics of Galaxies We present first results from SIMPLIFI (Study of Interstellar Magnetic Polarization: a Legacy Investigation of Filaments), a SOFIA/HAWC+ $214~μ\rm{}m$ polarimetric survey of Galactic molecular cloud filaments. We trace magnetic field morphology from the DR21 Main Ridge into surrounding sub-filaments at $\sim{}0.1~\rm{}pc$ resolution, extending polarimetric detections for the first time beyond high-column-density regions probed by prior submillimeter observations. We compare the plane-of-sky orientations of the magnetic field $\hat{B}_{\rm{}pos}$, the projected gravitational acceleration $\vec{g}_{\rm{}pos}$, and the intensity gradient rotated by $90^{\circ}$. The relative orientation of $\hat{B}_{\rm{}pos}$ and the rotated gradient transitions from preferentially parallel in sub-filaments to perpendicular in the Main Ridge at $N({\rm{}H_2})\sim{}2\times{}10^{22}~\rm{}cm^{-2}$, consistent with thresholds seen with Planck. This is expected in clouds formed from strongly magnetized, sub-Alfvenic, magnetically sub-critical gas. We find region-to-region and pixel-to-pixel variations at fixed column density, indicating that column density alone is not sufficient to encode changes in magnetic field structure. Our central finding is that $\vec{g}_{\rm{}pos}$ and $\hat{B}_{\rm{}pos}$ remain aligned throughout the cloud regardless of column density or environment, unlike the environment-dependent behavior of either quantity vs. the intensity gradient. This persistent alignment is consistent with magnetically-guided accretion: sub-filaments channel material along field lines at several $10^{-3}\,M_{\odot}\,\rm{}yr^{-1}$, sufficient to assemble the Ridge within $\sim{}1~\rm{}Myr$ and sustain high-mass star formation. The framework also explains why observed radial velocities $\sim{}2~\rm{}km\,s^{-1}$ fall well below free-fall expectations $\sim{}8~\rm{}km\,s^{-1}$ due to projection effects. |
| title | SIMPLIFI -- Study of Interstellar Magnetic Polarization: a Legacy Investigation of Filaments. I. Magnetically-Guided Accretion onto the DR21 Ridge |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.12604 |