Turbulence in compact to giant H II regions

Radial velocity fluctuations on the plane of the sky are a powerful tool for studying the turbulent dynamics of emission line regions. We conduct a systematic statistical analysis of the H a velocity field for a diverse sample of nine H II regions, spanning two orders of magnitude in size and luminosity, located in the Milky Way and other Local Group galaxies. By fitting a simple model to the second-order spatial structure function of velocity fluctuations, we extract three fundamental parameters: the velocity dispersion, the correlation length, and the power-law slope. We determine credibility limits for these parameters in each region, accounting for observational limitations of noise, atmospheric seeing, and the finite map size. The plane-of-sky velocity dispersion is found to be a better diagnostic of turbulent motions than the line width, especially for lower luminosity regions where the turbulence is subsonic. The correlation length of velocity fluctuations is found to be al w ays roughly 2 per cent of the H II region diameter, implying that turbulence is driven on relatively small scales. No evidence is found for any steepening of the structure function in the transition from subsonic to supersonic turbulence, possibly due to the counterv ailing ef fect of projection smoothing. Ionized density fluctuations are too large to be explained by the action of the turbulence in any but the highest luminosity sources. A variety of behaviours are seen on scales larger than the correlation length, with only a minority of sources showing evidence for homogeneity on the largest scales.

Automated summary

We conducted a statistical analysis of the Hα velocity field in a diverse sample of HII regions, extracting three fundamental parameters: velocity dispersion, correlation length, and power-law slope. The plane-of-sky velocity dispersion was found to be a better indicator of turbulent motions, especially for low luminosity regions. The correlation length of velocity fluctuations was always approximately 2% of the HII region diameter, suggesting turbulence is driven on small scales. No evidence for steepening of the structure function was found in the transition from subsonic to supersonic turbulence, possibly due to projection smoothing. Ionized density fluctuations were larger than expected, indicating turbulence alone cannot explain them. Only a minority of sources showed evidence for homogeneity on the largest scales.