Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL LETTERS
Volume 718, Issue 1, Pages L1-L6Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/718/1/L1
Keywords
galaxies: ISM; infrared: ISM; ISM: structure; Magellanic Clouds
Categories
Funding
- Mexican Foundation CONACYT
- NASA
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Power spectra of Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) emission at 24, 70, and 160 mu m observed with the Spitzer Space Telescope have a two-component power-law structure with a shallowslope of - 1.6 at low wavenumber, k, and a steep slope of - 2.9 at high k. The break occurs at k(-1) similar to 100-200 pc, which is interpreted as the line-of-sight thickness of the LMC disk. The slopes are slightly steeper for longer wavelengths, suggesting the cooler dust emission is smoother than the hot emission. The power spectrum (PS) covers similar to 3.5 orders of magnitude, and the break in the slope is in the middle of this range on a logarithmic scale. Large-scale driving from galactic and extragalactic processes, including disk self-gravity, spiral waves, and bars, presumably causes the low-k structure in what is effectively a two-dimensional geometry. Small-scale driving from stellar processes and shocks causes the high-k structure in a three-dimensional geometry. This transition in dimensionality corresponds to the observed change in PS slope. A companion paper models the observed power law with a self-gravitating hydrodynamics simulation of a galaxy like the LMC.
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