Multilognormal density structure in Cygnus-X molecular clouds: a fitting for N-PDF without power law

We studied the H-2 column density probability distribution function (N-PDF) based on molecular emission lines using the Nobeyama 45-m Cygnus X CO survey data. Using the DENDROGRAM and SCIMES algorithms, we identified 124 molecular clouds in the (CO)-C-13 data. From these identified molecular clouds, an N-PDF was constructed for 11 molecular clouds with an extent of more than 0.4 deg(2). From the fitting of the N-PDF, we found that the N-PDF could be well fitted with one or two lognormal distributions. These fitting results provided an alternative density structure for molecular clouds from a conventional picture. We investigated the column density, dense molecular cloud cores, and radio continuum source distributions in each cloud and found that the N-PDF shape was less correlated with the star-forming activity over a whole cloud. Furthermore, we found that the lognormal N-PDF parameters obtained from the fitting showed two impressive features. First, the lognormal distribution at the low-density part had the same mean column density (similar to 10(21.5) cm(-2)) for almost all the molecular clouds. Second, the width of the lognormal distribution tended to decrease with an increasing mean density of the structures. These correlations suggest that the shape of the N-PDF reflects the relationship between the density and turbulent structure of the whole molecular cloud but is less affected by star-forming activities.

Automated summary

In this study, the H-2 column density probability distribution function (N-PDF) was analyzed based on molecular emission lines using the Nobeyama 45-m Cygnus X CO survey data. A total of 124 molecular clouds were identified using the DENDROGRAM and SCIMES algorithms. For 11 molecular clouds with an extent of more than 0.4 deg(2), an N-PDF was constructed and fitted with one or two lognormal distributions. The findings suggest that the shape of the N-PDF reflects the density and turbulent structure of the whole molecular cloud, while being less affected by star-forming activities.