The Distribution of UV Radiation Field in the Molecular Clouds of Gould Belt

The distribution of ultraviolet (UV) radiation field provides critical constraints on the physical environments of molecular clouds. Within 1 kpc of our solar system and fostering protostars of different masses, the giant molecular clouds in the Gould Belt present an excellent opportunity to resolve the UV field structure in star-forming regions. We performed spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting of the archival data from the Herschel Gould Belt Survey (HGBS). Dust radiative transfer analysis with the DUSTY code was applied to 23 regions in 14 molecular complexes of the Gould Belt, resulting in the spatial distribution of the radiation field in these regions. For 10 of 15 regions with independent measurements of star formation rate, their star formation rate and UV radiation intensity largely conform to a linear correlation found in previous studies.

Automated summary

The distribution of UV radiation field provides important constraints on the physical environments of molecular clouds. By analyzing the data from the Herschel Gould Belt Survey, we obtained the spatial distribution of the radiation field in molecular cloud regions within the Gould Belt. We found a linear correlation between star formation rate and UV radiation intensity.