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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0The Astrophysical Journal

Turbulence Cascade in Cygnus X Revealed by Multipoint Velocity Dispersion Function Method

  • Junjie Huang1,2
  • Yangjun Pu1,2
  • Keping Qiu1,2
  • Junhao Liu1,2
  • Yingxi Li1,2
  • Mengke Zhao1,2
  1. 1Nanjing University
  2. 2Key Laboratory of Modern Astronomy and Astrophysics (Nanjing University)
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Abstract

Turbulence plays a crucial role in regulating star formation activities within molecular clouds, yet few methods can directly reveal its properties and underlying processes. We use molecular line data from the Nobeyama 45 m Cygnus X CO Survey to study the turbulence properties and their relationships with star-forming activities and/or other nonthermal motions. In this work, we apply the multipoint velocity dispersion function (VDF), rather than direct linewidth measurements, to investigate the nonthermal properties of molecular cloud motions. We filter out the large-scale ordered structure and isolate a relatively small-scale turbulence component. Through the friends in velocity (FIVe) algorithm, we identify 10 substructures of the clouds and derive the turbulent properties of each cloud using the VDF method. We find that both the cloud-complex regions and the 10 velocity substructures exhibit turbulence correlation lengths of ∼2–5 pc. This plateau scale suggests a parsec-scale turbulence correlation or driving scale in Cygnus X. Below this scale, the rising VDFs trace the velocity scaling of the turbulent cascade, whereas larger-scale VDF variations likely reflect cloud-scale motions. The comparison between cloud complexes and substructures further suggests that, in observational data, the VDF may constrain the turbulence correlation scale more robustly than the turbulence velocity dispersion.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{huang2026turbulence,
  title = {{Turbulence Cascade in Cygnus X Revealed by Multipoint Velocity Dispersion Function Method}},
  author = {Junjie Huang and Yangjun Pu and Keping Qiu and Junhao Liu and Yingxi Li and Mengke Zhao},
  journal = {The Astrophysical Journal},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/aea40a},
  url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aea40a},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Turbulence Cascade in Cygnus X Revealed by Multipoint Velocity Dispersion Function Method
AU  - Junjie Huang
AU  - Yangjun Pu
AU  - Keping Qiu
AU  - Junhao Liu
AU  - Yingxi Li
AU  - Mengke Zhao
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/05
JO  - The Astrophysical Journal
DO  - 10.3847/1538-4357/aea40a
UR  - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aea40a
AB  - Turbulence plays a crucial role in regulating star formation activities within molecular clouds, yet few methods can directly reveal its properties and underlying processes. We use molecular line data from the Nobeyama 45 m Cygnus X CO Survey to study the turbulence properties and their relationships with star-forming activities and/or other nonthermal motions. In this work, we apply the multipoint velocity dispersion function (VDF), rather than direct linewidth measurements, to investigate the nonthermal properties of molecular cloud motions. We filter out the large-scale ordered structure and isolate a relatively small-scale turbulence component. Through the friends in velocity (FIVe) algorithm, we identify 10 substructures of the clouds and derive the turbulent properties of each cloud using the VDF method. We find that both the cloud-complex regions and the 10 velocity substructures exhibit turbulence correlation lengths of ∼2–5 pc. This plateau scale suggests a parsec-scale turbulence correlation or driving scale in Cygnus X. Below this scale, the rising VDFs trace the velocity scaling of the turbulent cascade, whereas larger-scale VDF variations likely reflect cloud-scale motions. The comparison between cloud complexes and substructures further suggests that, in observational data, the VDF may constrain the turbulence correlation scale more robustly than the turbulence velocity dispersion.
SN  - 0004-637X
SN  - 1538-4357
ER  -