The role of magnetic fields during the earliest stages of massive star formation

The contraction of molecular clouds towards the formation of stars is controlled by an interplay between gravity, turbulence and magnetic fields. Determining which of these three forces dominates is at the centre of current star formation research. Gravity and turbulence are traditionally probed by observing star-forming clouds in optically thin tracers, providing both the mass of the cloud and its kinetic energy. Magnetic fields, on the other hand, are more difficult to measure. They require highly sensitive polarisation observations of the thermal dust emission. Such observations start to be available to the community as a result of the recent development of high sensitivity cameras such as SCUBA2-POL on the JCMT.
In a recent study, Peretto et al. (in prep) have characterised the ratio of kinetic to gravitational energy of sample of infrared dark clouds from tenth to tens of parsec scales. The goal of the PhD project is to complement this study by now evaluating the change of magnetic energy density as a function of scale for the same sample of clouds.
The student will analyse sub millimetre SCUBA2-POL polarisation data of a number infrared dark clouds, determine the most robust way to infer the magnetic field strength, and compare the magnetic field morphology with velocity gradients in order to determine the dynamical importance of B fields in the process of cloud evolution/ star formation.

Consideration is automatic upon application for admission to the Doctor of Philosophy in Physics and Astronomy with an October 2019 start date.

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