Scales of Stability and Turbulence in the Molecular ISM

Abstract

We reanalyze the data of the BU‐FCRAO Galactic Ring Survey (GRS) to understand the dynamics of the turbulent molecular interstellar medium. We define molecular clouds by their spatial half‐power contours of 13CO‐integrated intensity, independent of a boundary based on thresholding or tiling. We find properties of hydrostatic equilibrium (HE) and virial equilibrium (VE), the former independent and the latter dependent on time and spatial scales. We suggest that HE is a stationary property of the turbulence and that molecular clouds are high‐density regions of a fluctuating component. The gravitational and turbulent kinetic energies within clouds are continuously evolving toward a time‐dependent VE with the fluctuating, external, turbulent pressure energy (PE) that can be treated parametrically owing to the shorter time scale for virialization. The average PE is comparable to the pressure of the multiphase ISM at the Galactic mid‐plane. Larson's scaling relations analyzed by different statistical methods are not significant. The nondimensional variances of size, line width, and column density are of comparable magnitude, ruling out the inference of constant column density. Previously unrecognized autocorrelations may have contributed to the apparent validity of the inference.