THE COLUMN DENSITY DISTRIBUTION IN TURBULENT INTERSTELLAR MEDIA

Jorg Fischera and Michael A. Dopita

Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Institute of Advanced Studies, The Australian National University, Cotter Road,
Weston Creek, ACT 2611, Australia; Bfi schera@mso.anu.edu.au, mad@mso.anu.edu.au
Receiv ved 2004 January 6; accepted 2004 April 24
ABSTRACT
Our ability to correct the observational photometry of galaxies depends on our knowledge of the attenuation of
light produced by the dust contained in the interstellar medium. The magnitude and wavelength dependence of
the attenuation produced by a turbulent dust screen depends primarily on the distribution of the column density,
which is itself determined by the distribution of the local density. Here we provide quantitative estimates of the
dependence of the variance o
N
of the column densities N on the structure of the local density , and show how this
variance depends on the thickness of a turbulent, dusty screen. We provide an analytical approximation for the
variance in the limit of a thick slice in which the thickness is larger than the maximum scale L
max
of the
turbulent medium. Provided that the turbulence is Kolmogorov and the minimum scale is much smaller than
L
max
, the variance in the limit of a thick slice is given by o
N, N h i
o
,, , h i
L
max
, 8
1,2
, where N h i and , h i are
the means of the column density and the local density, respectively. We show that the density distribution can be
well approximated by a lognormal function, provided that the variance o
,, , h i
of the lognormal density distri-
bution of the local density with the mean density , h i is not much larger than $2.5.
Subject heading qs: dust, extinction ISM: general MHD turbulence
1. INTRODUCTION
Dust in galaxies absorbs and attenuates the starlight, par-
ticularly at UV wavelengths, adversely affecting our ability to
determine such fundamental quantities as the galaxy lumi-
nosity or the star formation rate. Attenuation correction factors
are strongly dependent on the highly inhomogenous structure
of the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM), and their determi-
nation is still basically an unsolved problem because the
geometrical and physical factors that feed into such correction
factors are rather complex. They depend on several parame-
ters, such as the relative distributions of dust and stars inside
the galaxy, the absorption and scattering properties of the dust
grains, the nature and composition of the dust grains them-
selves, the variation of these parameters throughout the gal-
axy, and the global structure and orientation of the galaxy
relative to the observer.
A fairly successful approach to this problem has been the
foreground screen approximation (Calzetti 2001 and refer-
ences therein). In this, the stars in the galaxy are considered to
lie at the same distance and are seen through a foreground
absorbing dust screen. In such a simplied geometry, the main
parameter determining the attenuation of the collected star-
light is the spatial distribution of the optical depth, which for a
constant gas-to-dust mass ratio, dust composition, and grain
size distribution is directly determined by the probability
distribution function (PDF) of the column densities. Provided
that the (nongray) attenuation arises from within the diffuse
ISM, the assumption that the dust properties do not vary
strongly with the local density may well be reasonable.
The scale-free structure observed in the diffuse ISM is
likely caused by turbulent motions and, more specically, by
MHD turbulence. In a previous paper (Fischera et al. 2003),
we showed that a turbulent foreground dust screen can natu-
rally explain the overall curvature of the empirical attenuation
curve derived for starburst galaxies, generally known as the
Calzetti extinction law (Calzetti 2001). This theoretical
model was found to be consistent with the hypothesis that the
lognormal PDF in column density arises in a turbulent, diffuse
medium. However, for a better insight into the attenuation
produced by a turbulent ISM density structure, it is essential to
understand how the PDF of the column density relates to the
compressible, turbulent structure of the local density.
The functional form of the column density through a tur-
bulent medium has been studied in some detail by both
Ostriker et al. (2001) and Vazquez-Semadeni & Garc a (2001).
Based on MHD simulations of forced isothermal turbulence,
Ostriker et al. found that the PDF of the column density
through isothermal turbulence can be approximated by a
lognormal density distribution and therefore by the same
functional form that describes the PDF of the local density in
an isothermal turbulent medium. As one might expect, the
contrast of the normalized values of the column density was
found to decrease with increasing slice thickness through the
turbulent density structure. Vazquez-Semadeni & Garc a have
studied the convergence of the lognormal density distribution
toward a Gaussian distribution in the limit of thick slices in
which the maximum scale of the turbulent medium becomes
smaller than the slice thickness. Apart from MHD simulations,
they also investigated the case in which the local density is
spatially uncorrelated but there is a dened PDF for the local
density. They found that the PDF of the column density is not
a simple lognormal PDF, as it shows higher probabilities at
high column densities; the PDF of the column density is
skewed in comparison with the PDF of the local density. This
deviation becomes more pronounced when a wider PDF of the
local density is considered. The convergence to a Gaussian
distribution was found to be very slow and appeared to be
even slower when a skewed lognormal PDF of the local
density, appropriate for a turbulent medium with self-gravity,
was considered.
Despite these efforts, our understanding of the column
density distribution in a turbulent medium remains weak, as
the results do not provide a quantitative description of either
919
The Astrophysical Journal, 611:919927, 2004 August 20
# 2004. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A.
the behavior of its PDF as a function of the thickness of the
turbulent screen or the dependence of its PDF on the structure
of the local density. The aim of this paper is to provide a
quantitative discussion of the properties of the column density,
based on the statistical properties of the local density in an
isothermal turbulent medium. These results can be used to
develop a physical model of a turbulent dust screen that may
be appropriate to calculate the radiative transport through the
diffuse ISM.
2. MODEL OF THE TURBULENT DENSITY STRUCTURE
The density structure of a turbulent medium can be de-
scribed by its statistical properties. The one-point statistics
provide the PDF of the local density, and the two-point sta-
tistics the correlation function
,
r . These statistical proper-
ties are essentially independent and are used here to construct
a simplied model of the turbulent density structure.
2.1. The PDF of the Local Density
Turbulence naturally produces a very inhomogeneous den-
sity structure. Hydrodynamic simulations of turbulence in
compressible uids show that the PDF of the local density can
be described by a lognormal density distribution, provided that
the turbulence is approximately isothermal (Vazquez-Semadeni
1994; Padoan et al. 1997; Passot & Vazquez-Semadeni 1998).
It also has been veried analytically (Nordlund & Padoan
1999) that the PDF of the local density in supersonic isother-
mal turbulence has to be exactly a lognormal density distri-
bution. The density distribution of the local density , in such a
medium is given by
p ,
1
,
p ln ,
1

2
p
o
ln ,
,
e
1,2 x
2
,o
2
ln ,
. 1
with x ln , ln ,
0
. 2
where o
ln ,
is the variance of the lognormal density distribu-
tion and ,
0
is dened by the mean value
, h i
_
d,p , ,
0
e
1,2 o
2
ln ,
. 3
Note that the lognormal distribution becomes a normal distri-
bution with a mean ,
0
and a variance o
ln ,
,
0
in the limit of small
uctuations ,,,
0
1 j jT1. The lognormal density distribu-
tion appears to be very robust, as the PDF remains close to
lognormal even when cases other than isothermal turbulence
are considered (Scalo et al. 1998; Passot & Vazquez-Semadeni
1998; Nordlund & Padoan 1999). However, in a medium in
which the temperature decreases with increasing density, the
PDF develops higher probabilities at high densities, so that the
PDF is skewed in comparison to the simple lognormal density
distribution. Nonetheless, for the diffuse ISM it should be a
reasonable approximation to consider a lognormal density
distribution, which we do here.
In general, the width of the density distribution increases as
a consequence of higher compression resulting from higher
Mach numbers M. In particular, for nonmagnetized forced
turbulence, it has been shown by using three-dimensional
simulations (Padoan et al. 1997; Nordlund & Padoan 1999)
that the variance of the density,
o
2
,
, , h i
2
_ _
(e
o
2
ln ,
1) , h i
2
. 4
is almost linearly correlated with Mach number:
o
,
% uM , h i. 5
where u % 0.5. For the more general case, no simple corre-
lation between density contrast and Mach number has been
found. However, as might be expected from the additional
pressure support to the plasma provided by magnetic elds, it
seems that the density contrast becomes weaker when mag-
netized turbulence is considered (Nordlund & Padoan 1999;
Ostriker et al. 2001).
2.2. The Density Structure
A turbulent medium is characterized by a scaling relation
resulting from turbulence on large scales cascading down
to smaller spatial scales. Provided that the specic energy
transfer rate in an incompressible and nonmagnetized uid is
constant with scale, then the famous Kolmogorov relation
applies. In this, the Fourier transform of the specic kinetic
energy is given by E k $ k
5,3
. Considering dust as a passive
contaminant transported by a Kolmogorov velocity eld, then,
its local density is also Kolmogorov (Warhaft 2000).
In an attempt to describe magnetic turbulence in an in-
compressible uid, Iroshnikov (1964) and Kraichnan (1965)
obtained an energy spectrum with a atter slope than the
Kolmogorov one: E k / k
3,2
, a relation also derived for
acoustic turbulence (Zakharov & Sagdeev 1970). Even though
Kolmogorov turbulence strictly applies only to incompressible
and nonmagnetized uids, the Kolmogorov relation has also
been found for astrophysical plasma and seems to be a quite
general phenomenon in turbulent media (Cho et al. 2003).
As suggested by both MHD simulations and measurements,
we assume that the power spectrum of the local density ,,
given by P k / , k j j
2
, where , k is the Fourier transform
of the local density, is a power law with a power of n. For
simplicity we assume isotropy, so that P k P k . Apart
from the Kolmogorov spectrum with n 10,3, we also
consider a atter spectrum with n 3, consistent with the
prediction of the model of Iroshnikov and Kraichnan. In a real
turbulent medium the scaling relation will be limited between
a maximum and a minimum scale, corresponding to the in-
jection scale in MHD simulations and the scale on which the
energy transfer becomes dissipative. We therefore assume that
the Fourier components of the local density for k 0 are
restricted to the interval k
min
. k
max
.
The power spectrum for k 0 contains all the structure
information, while the power spectrum at k 0 contains the
information about the mean local density , h i and is given by
P
0
k 2
3
c k , h i
2
. It is reasonable to consider these two
parts of the power spectrum separately, and we refer to the
power spectrum containing the structure information as

P k .
The power spectrum is generally connected with the cor-
relation function given by

,
r
1
V
_
dr
0
, r r
0
, r
0
, r r
0
, r
0
h i. 6
where V is the considered volume via Fourier transform,

,
r
1
2
3
_
drP k e
ikr
7
, h i
2

1
2
3
_
dr

P k e
ikr
. 8
FISCHERA & DOPITA 920 Vol. 611
As a result of the assumption of isotropy we have
,
r

,
r . For the cases considered here the integral will tend to be
zero at scales larger than r, L
max
,2 , so that
,
1 , h i
2
.
3. STATISTICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COLUMN
DENSITY DISTRIBUTION
In this section we discuss the main characteristics of the
column density on the basis of the simplied assumptions for
the structure and the PDF of the local density. It is necessary
to understand how the power spectrum and the correlation
function of the column density change with slice thickness,
since these properties can then be used to obtain the variance
of the column density. As the variance depends only on the
slice thickness and the power spectrum of the local density,
this will provide additional information about the PDF of the
column density and allow a quantitative analysis of the as-
sumed functional form of the PDF. Finally, we derive the PDF
of the column density through a simulated turbulent medium.
We provide quantitative estimates of how the PDF changes
with slice thickness and how well the PDF is represented by a
lognormal density distribution.
3.1. Structure of the Column Density
We want to consider the column density along the z-axis.
The column density at R
1
can be generally be written as
N z
0
. R
_
dz, R. z W
z z
0

_ _
. 9
where W z z
0
, is a window function. Here we only
need the simple box window given by
W x
1 x j j 0.5.
0 otherwise.
_
10
Obviously, from equation (9) the column density depends
on the location z
0
of the window function. However, in a
statistical sense this dependence disappears. To obtain the
power spectrum, one has to consider the averaged correlation
function of the column density,

N
R
1
V
_
dz
0
_
dR
0
N z
0
. R R
0
N z
0
. R
0
. 11
where V is the turbulent volume. Alternatively, we can write

N
R N R R
0
N R
0
h i. 12
Starting with equation (11) and using the relation

N
R
1
2
2
_
dKP K e
iKR
. 13
it is straightforward to show that the power spectrum of the
column density is given by
P K
1
2
_
dk
z
P K. k
z


W k
z
. 14
with

W k
z
W k
z
j j
2
, where
W k
z

_
dzW
z z
0

_ _
e
ik
z
z
15
is the Fourier transform of the window function. In the spe-
cial case of the simple box window used here, the Fourier
transform of the window function is given by

W k
z

2
sin
2
k
z
,2 , k
z
,2
2
.
2
The variation of the power spectrum of the column density
with slice thickness is shown in Figure 1. Although in this
example the power spectrum of the local density is assumed to
be Kolmogorov, with n 10,3, the result is very similar in
other choices of the intrinsic power-law slope of the local
density variations, n. In Figure 1 we also give the asymptotes
for a thin and a thick slice, as discussed in more detail by
Lazarian & Pogosyan (2000). The power spectrum is pro-
portional to K
n1
and K
n
in the frequency limits KT1,
and K 31,, respectively. As seen in Figure 1, the whole
power spectrum down to K 1,L
max
is well described by the
thick-slice approximation for slices with a thickness not much
larger than L
max
. The power at frequencies smaller than
k
min
1,L
max
decreases with increasing slice thickness and
will disappear for a slice having an innite thickness.
The correlation function of the column density can be rep-
resented by an alternative form of equation (13):

N
R N h i
2

1
2
2
_
dK

P K e
iKR
. 16
where N h i , h i and

P K is given by equation (14), after
P k is replaced by

P k . For the cases considered here the
integral becomes zero at large scales, so that
N
1 N h i
2
.
At R 0, on the other hand, the correlation function is given
by
N
0 N
2
_
o
2
N
N h i
2
.
In Figure 2 we show how the correlation function of the
column density changes with slice thickness. The power
spectrum is taken to be either Kolmogorov, with n 10,3,
Fig. 1.Change in the power spectrum P K of the column density N in
terms of the ratio of the slice thickness to the largest scale L
max
in the
turbulent medium. For the purpose of the calculation a minimum scale
L
min
10
6
and a maximum scale L
max
0.1, each measured in units of the
box size L, was chosen. The slice thickness has been varied in the range
10
4
to 1, with d log 0.5. Also shown are the asymptotes for a thin and a
thick slice. For these the power-law slopes are n 1 and n, respectively.
1
Bold capital letters refer to two-dimensional vectors, whereas normal
capitals represent the absolute values.
2
The derived power spectrum of the column density differs only by a
factor of
2
from that given by Lazarian & Pogosyan (2000).
COLUMN DENSITY IN TURBULENT ISMs 921 No. 2, 2004
or slightly atter, with n 3. In both cases the correlation
function becomes almost constant, N h i
2
, for scales greater
than R % L
max
,2. The different slopes at smaller scales reect
the different curvatures of the power spectra. As might be
expected, the correlation function is steeper for the atter
power spectrum, and the steepness decreases for thicker slices.
Because the slope of the power spectrum is almost constant
for L
max
, the correlation function for even thicker slices is
well described by the correlation function for L
max
. In
case of very thin slices, the correlation function is similar to
the one shown for 0.01L
max
.
3.2. Variance of the Column Density
The power spectrum of the column density given in the
previous subsection provides a simple method to determine
the variance o
N
( N
2
_
N h i
2
)
1,2
. In addition, the behavior
of the variance in the case of thick slices, L
max
, can also
be given.
With
N
0 in equation (16), it follows immediately that
o
2
N

1
2
2
_
dK

P K . 17
Correspondingly, the variance in local density is given by
o
2
,

,
2
_
, h i
2

1
2
3
_
dk

P k . 18
The dependence of the variance o
N
on the power spectrum has
some important consequences, as discussed below.
3.2.1. Asymptotes for Thin and Thick Slices
To obtain the asymptotes for o
2
N
in the case of a thin or a
thick slice, we can basically follow the treatment of Lazarian
& Pogosyan (2000). Here we refer to a slice of the ISM as
thick if the thickness is larger than the maximum scale L
max
.
A thin slice refers to a thickness smaller than the minimum
scale L
min
.
In the limit of a very thin slice, with T1,k
max
, the
Fourier transform of the window function is almost a constant
over the whole power spectrum, with

W k
z
%
2
, so that
o
2
N
%

2
2
3
_
dk

P k
2
o
2
,
. 19
or o
N, N h i
o
,, , h i
. As expected, the variance of the column
density becomes equal to the variance of the local density.
If the slice thickness, on the other hand, is much larger than
the largest scale, or 31,k
min
, then the Fourier transform of
the window function acts effectively as a delta function, with

W k
z
% 2c k
z
for k k
min
.
Therefore, in the limit of a thick slice the variance of the
column density is given by
o
2
N


2
2
_
dK

P K. 0 . 20
so that o
N
/
1,2
.
Provided that the power spectrum is a power law with
n 6 3 and n 6 2, then the variance varies as
o
2
N, N h i
o
2
,, , h i
1 n 3 1
n2

2 n 2 1
n3

L
max
_ _
1
. 21
with k
max
,k
min
. For the case in which n < 3 and the
power spectrum extends over a large range, so that 1, % 0,
equation (21) converges to an expression independent of . In
the special case in which the power spectrum of the local
density is Kolmogorov (n 10,3), the approximation
becomes o
2
N, N h i
o
2
,, , h i 8,L
max

1
.
On the other hand, if n ! 3, then the absolute value of the
variance o
N
also depends on . For example, for n 3 the
variance varies in the limit of thick slices as
o
2
N, N h i
o
2
,, , h i
1 1,
2 ln

L
max
_ _
1
. 22
For a turbulent density structure with k
max
,k
min
31, the
variance of the column density through a thick slice decreases
as o
N, N h i
/ 1, ln
1,2
.
The dependence of o
N, N h i
on can be taken from Figure 3,
where we show the variation of the variance with slice
thickness for different values of . Again, we take the power
spectrum to be either Kolmogorov, with n 10,3, or
slightly atter, with a power n 3. In both cases the vari-
ation of the variance of the column density can be well
Fig. 2.Correlation function of the column density for three different slices through a turbulent density structure. The power of the power spectrum is again
chosen to be either n 3 or n 10,3. The ratio of the maximum to the minimum scale is taken to be L
max
,L
min
k
max
,k
min
100.
FISCHERA & DOPITA 922 Vol. 611
described by the thick-slice approximation, provided that the
slice thickness is larger than ,L
max
% 1.
3.3. The PDF of the Column Density
To derive the PDF of the column density as function of slice
thickness , we constructed a model of the local density
showing the statistical properties of a turbulent density struc-
ture described in x 2.
The method is similar to the one used to study the mass
spectrum of interstellar clouds by Elmegreen (2002). The
idea is to begin with the Fourier transform y k of a fractal
structure y r with a normal PDF. In real space the values
are exponentiated to obtain the nal lognormal PDF. For
the power spectrum, Elmegreen adopted the Kolmogorov
power law.
But in general, the functional form of the power spectrum
of the lognormal density structure is different from a power-
law spectrum, showing a atter curvature toward smaller
frequencies. The effect depends on the shape of the power
spectrum and is more prominent for steeper power laws.
However, provided that the variance of the lognormal PDF
and the ratio k
max
,k
min
are not too large, the power
spectrum of the nal density structure can still be well ap-
proximated by a power law. This allows a simple correction
by choosing a steeper power spectrum in the beginning. We
applied this correction to allow a quantitative analysis of the
density distributions of the column densities.
To determine the dependence of the power spectrum on the
variance o
ln ,
, we derived a number of power spectra of a
lognormal density distribution, varying the power in the range
5 to 3 and o
ln ,
in the range 0.12. We considered two
different cases for the ratio k
max
,k
min
, 5.4 or 10.8. The
minimum frequency is taken as k
min
1, 2 . The nal
power spectra have been tted in the interval k
min
. k
max
with
a simple power law by reducing the relative deviation between
data points and power law using a
2
t.
The variation of the power with variance o
ln ,
is shown in
Figure 4. Although for this particular calculation a cube size
of N
3
216
3
pixels has been used, the result is almost in-
dependent of the size of the simulation. As seen in the gure,
the correction for the power can be quite substantial. The
dependence of the power on the variance is smaller when
Fig. 3.Variation of o
N, N h i
,o
,, , h i
o
N
, o
,
_ _
as function of the slice thickness in units of the largest scale L
max
for several values of k
max
,k
min
. Also shown
(thick dashed line) is the asymptote /
1/2
for thick slices taken through a turbulent density structure with k
max
,k
min
10, determined using eqs. (21) and (22).
Left: The power of the power spectrum is taken to be n 3. Riqht: The power spectrum is taken to be Kolmogorov, with slope n 10,3.
Fig. 4.Change of the power of the initial power spectrum (thick solid lines) of a normal density distribution after creation of a lognormal density distribution
with variance o
ln ,
. The nal power spectrum has been assumed to be a simple power law. The relative deviation to this power law is shown as thin lines. The
horizontal dashed line shows the case of the Kolmogorov power spectrum with n 10,3. The ratios of the maximum to the minimum frequency have been
arbitrarily chosen to be k
max
,k
min
5.4 (left) and 10.8 (riqht), and for this calculation a cube of N
3
216
3
pixels has been used.
COLUMN DENSITY IN TURBULENT ISMs 923 No. 2, 2004
considering a larger ratio k
max
,k
min
. On the other hand, the
approximation of the nal power spectrum with a simple
power law becomes worse.
To study the case in which the slice thickness through the
turbulent medium is larger than a maximum scale L
max
, the
Fourier components are restricted to the interval k
min
. k
max
,
with k
min
1,L
max
and k
max
N,2L, where L is the cube
size. The mean value y h i is taken to be zero. To construct the
density structure with a normal density distribution, the phases
halves of the Fourier coefcients have been chosen randomly
between 0 and 2. The other halves are given by the condition
y k y

k , to obtain nonimaginary values in real space.

The power spectrum is normalized to the variance o
2
ln ,
of the
local density using equation (18).
In real space the values y r create a multifractal with a
normal density distribution around zero and a variance o
ln ,
.
A lognormal PDF of the local density , with mean value , h i is
obtained by applying the transformation
, exp y ln ,
0
. 23
where ln ,
0
ln , h i
1
2
o
2
ln ,
.
To derive the PDF of the column density through a den-
sity structure caused by turbulence, we used a cube with
N
3
432
3
pixels. As representative of the more common
case, we considered a density structure with a Kolmogorov
power spectrum. The ratio k
max
,k
min
was chosen to be 5.4.
Together with the cube size, this allowed us to study the PDF
of column densities for slices with a thickness of up to 40
times larger than the largest typical turbulent cell size L
max
.
This choice also allowed the variance o
ln ,
of the lognormal
PDF to be increased to higher values (up to $1.5), without
losing the power-law shape of the power spectrum, than
would have been possible with the choice of a higher ratio
k
max
,k
min
.
To study the dependence of the PDF of the column density
on the width of the PDF of the local density, we considered
cases with variance o
,, , h i
from 0.5 up to 2.5 in steps of 0.5. In
addition, we also considered a density structure with a vari-
ance o
,, , h i
0.25, using a cube size of N
3
324
3
pixels.
The PDF of the column density was derived for all cases
in which the cubes could be equally sliced. For comparison,
we tted the PDF with a simple lognormal density distri-
bution, using the variance o
ln N
of the PDF as the only free
parameter.
3.3.1. Result
The variation of the computed PDF of the column density
N, N h i with slice thickness is shown in Figure 5 for the
cases o
,, , h i
1.0, 1.5, and 2.5. As expected, for very thick
slices the PDF of the relative values N, N h i collapses to a
narrow distribution centered around unity. Overall, the func-
tional form of a lognormal distribution is well conserved, even
though some deviations from this do exist. These deviations
are more evident at higher values of the variance of the local
density. Compared with the simulations, the simple lognormal
distribution predicts higher probabilities at low column den-
sities but too-low probabilities at high column densities. For a
slice thickness similar to the maximum turbulent cell scale
L
max
, the lognormal PDF is still very broad, with a width al-
most half the size of the PDF of the local density.
In Figure 6, we show the variance of the column densities
derived for several slices through the simulated turbulent
density structures. For all cases, even for the highest variance
of the local density (o
,, , h i
2.5) considered here, the values
are almost identical with the theoretical values obtained using
equation (17). Slight differences due to the nal resolution of
the simulation are found only for very thin slices.
The computed values are compared with the variances de-
rived from the tted values o
ln N
of the lognormal density
distribution using equation (4). The relative error of this var-
iance is shown in Figure 7. For o
,, , h i
< 1, both methods
provide essentially the same result. They start to deviate for
o
,, , h i
% 1. The deviation becomes even stronger toward
higher variances of the local density. The ts made using a
simple lognormal density distribution yield values of the
variance that are too small. This is apparently due to the fact
that the t always underestimates probabilities at very high
densities.
The deviation in the variance shows a maximum, as seen in
Figure 7, that shifts to larger values when o
,, , h i
increases.
The decrease of the relative deviation for the thickest slices is
expected because of the central-limit theorem and the fact that
the lognormal density distribution becomes a Gaussian in the
case of narrow distributions with o
ln N
T1.
We have also studied the PDF of the column density using
smaller cube sizes but the same dynamic range and the same
power law of the power spectrum. For these, the functional
form of the density distributions and the variance o
,
obtained
by tting a lognormal density distribution were found to be
the same.
4. DISCUSSION
The idealized model of an isothermal turbulent density
structure provides a simple connection of the variance of the
column density seen through a slab in the line of sight with its
thickness and its statistical properties. The medium itself is
mathematically well described and therefore allows a deeper
understanding of the dependence of individual parameters.
This might be very helpful in analyzing in more detail the
attenuation of distant extended objects that are embedded in or
surrounded by a dusty, turbulent medium.
Under the assumption of a lognormal density distribution of
the column densities, the described analytical model can be
applied to a distant foreground screen and a nonscattering
medium when the emitting sources are homogeneously mixed
inside the turbulent medium. The model can be used to derive
attenuation curves for a certain underlying mean extinction
curve.
As shown in the paper, the actual PDF of the column density
in highly turbulent media with o
,, , h i
31 might be slightly
different from a lognormal density distribution. When the re-
lation between the variance o
,, , h i
and o
ln ,
(eq. [4]) is used, the
probabilities of low column densities might be too high, in
comparison with the actual PDF, so that a better choice in
optical thick media with t
k
h i 1 might be a lognormal density
distribution with smaller variance. It is therefore possible that
the PDF at a certain slice thickness ,L
max
might be too wide.
Even though the actual effect of the turbulent screen might be
smaller than predicted, the overall effect of the turbulent screen
on the attenuation curve will be well described.
Apart from the slice thickness and the variance of the local
density, the functional form of the PDF of the column density
may also depend on the power law n and the dynamic range,
or the ratio . Here we only considered the case 5.4, to
maintain the power-law shape for wide density distributions as
well. It is possible that the deviation of the PDF from a sim-
ple lognormal density distribution will be stronger for larger
FISCHERA & DOPITA 924 Vol. 611
values of the ratio . Even though we do not expect that the
results will be very different from the ones presented here, this
problem surely needs further attention.
To show the accuracy and validity of the derived attenua-
tion curves, it will be important to calculate the radiative
transfer through a simulated turbulent density structure where
light scattering by dust grains is also considered. We have
shown in this paper how a simulation of an isothermal tur-
bulent medium can be constructed.
The dynamic range in this, as in all other simulations, will in
general be much smaller than in the real turbulent medium,
where the scaling relation extends over several magnitudes.
One has to consider that, as outlined in this paper, the aver-
aging effect of integrating along the line of sight is smaller than
Fig. 5.Change of the PDF of the column density with slice thickness . For the calculation a cube of N
3
432
3
pixels was used, with k
max
,k
min
5.4 and a
largest scale of L
max
10.8 pixels. The power spectrum of the local density is assumed to be Kolmogorov. The derived PDFs (solid lines) correspond to slice
thicknesses of 1, 3, 6, 12, 27, 54, 108, 216, and 432 pixels. Each curve has been tted by a lognormal density distribution (dashed lines). The thick lines
correspond to a slice thickness of 12 pixels, slightly larger than the maximum scale.
COLUMN DENSITY IN TURBULENT ISMs 925 No. 2, 2004
in the actual medium, with the result of a wider density dis-
tribution of column densities. To correct for this effect and to
obtain a PDF close to that of the real turbulent medium, the
variance of the local density has to be smaller than the actual
value. As shown, this effect depends, for a given slice thick-
ness, on the dynamic range of the simulation and the slope of
the power spectrum. While the effect becomes almost negli-
gible for Kolmogorov turbulence if 10, it is important to
take the effect into account for all dynamic ranges if n ! 3, as
for n ! 3 the total power of the power spectrum does not
converge with . The value of the variance o
,, , h i
to be used in
the simulation is provided by the analytical model. If f
1
and
f
2
are the ratios o
N, N h i
,o
,, , h i
at certain slice thickness of
two turbulent media with dynamic range
1
and
2
, both me-
dia provide the same variance of the column density if the
corresponding variances o
1
,, , h i
and o
2
,, , h i
of the local densities
fulll the relation
o
1
,, , h i
o
2
,, , h i
f
2
,f
1
. 24
This procedure can be applied in principle for slices of
arbitrary thickness. However, one has to bear in mind that the
variation of o
N, N h i
,o
,, , h i
with slice thickness in case of thin
slices with < L
max
depends on the resolution. Therefore,
even if the variance of the column density through the whole
simulation is chosen to be the same as in the real medium, the
variance of the column density for thin slices through the
simulation may still be different from the actual value. This
effect will be important in the limit where the thin slices are
optically thick, while it will be negligible otherwise. There-
fore, the simulations can only provide realistic attenuation
curves in a region where thin slices with a thickness of only a
few pixels are optically thin.
The analytic approach used in this paper in no way elimi-
nates the need for improved MHD simulations. Such simu-
lations are essential for a better understanding of the turbulent
structure of the ISM. They provide scaling relations and make
it possible to study the PDF of the local density under different
conditions. The prediction of a lognormal density distribution
of the local density and the relation between the variance and
the Mach number in the case of nonmagnetized isothermal
turbulence are only two examples that show the power of these
simulations. Nonetheless, one still has to take into account the
fact that these simulations are quite limited in their size.
MHD simulations may provide a more realistic local vari-
ation of the density than the fractal density structure consid-
ered in this paper. The actual shape of individual density
uctuations will be important if their number is small and
the scattered light makes a nonnegligible contribution to the
radiative transport. Its solution will furthermore depend on
the location of the density uctuations in the turbulent den-
sity structure. As the number of uctuations in simulations is
generally very small, they can be used to analyze the range in
which the attenuation caused by a medium with a small number
of density uctuations may vary. To determine a mean atten-
uation curve, it would be necessary to calculate the radiative
transport through several different simulations and to take the
average.
However, if the number of the uctuations is large, their
individual shape should not have an important effect. The
radiative transport will mainly be determined by the PDF of
the column density and the morphology, provided by both the
one-point and the two-point statistics used to construct an
idealized turbulent density structure. Even more important
than the actual shape of the density uctuations might be the
possible variations of dust properties and abundance with
density and radiation eld.
5. SUMMARY
We have analyzed the distribution of column densities
through a density structure having a lognormal PDF and a
power spectrum of the local density consistent with the sta-
tistical properties of an isothermal turbulent medium. The
power spectrum was assumed to extend over a range of
wavenumbers k
min
. k
max
. We have analyzed in detail the
Fig. 6.Variance o
N, N h i
(circles) of the column density seen through the
simulated density structure as a function of slice thickness, in units of
the largest turbulent scale L
max
for several values of the variance o
,, , h i
. The
curves are labeled according to the value o
,, , h i
. For o
,, , h i
0.25, a simula-
tion of N
3
324
3
pixels is used, otherwise, a simulation of N
3
432
3
pixels.
The power spectrum of the density has been assumed to be Kolmogorov, with
n 10,3, and the ratio k
max
,k
min
has been taken to be 5.4, with a maximum
scale L
max
10.8 pixels. Values shown as diamonds have been obtained by
tting the PDFs of the column densities with a lognormal density distribution
and by applying eq. (4). The theoretical values derived using eq. (17) are
shown as dashed curves.
Fig. 7.Relative error in the variance o
N, N h i
shown in Fig. 6 as a function
of slice thickness when we make the approximation that the PDF of the
column densities can be approximated by a lognormal density distribution
(circles). Curves are labeled according to the assumed variance o
,, , h i
of the
local density.
FISCHERA & DOPITA 926 Vol. 611
variance and the change of the PDF with the slice thickness
and compared the resultant PDF of the column densities with a
lognormal column density distribution function.
The main results are summarized as follows:
1. The variance of the column density depends in general on
k
max
,k
min
. For n 3 and k
max
,k
min
31, there exists a lower
limit on the variance for each slice thickness.
2. For slice thicknesses above ,L
max
% 1, the variance o
N
of the column density follows a simple power law, with
o
N
/
1,2
.
3. In the special case of the local density having a Kol-
mogorov power spectrum and provided that k
max
,k
min
31,
the asymptote of the variance for a thick slice is given by
o
2
N, N h i
o
2
,, , h i
8,L
max

1
. At a slice thickness equal to the
largest scale size, the variance is o
N, N h i
o
,, , h i
,2

2
p
.
4. The PDF of the column density shows slight deviations
from a simple lognormal density distribution, which increase
toward larger values of the variance o
,
of the local density.
5. For the considered cases having variances o
,, , h i
of up to
2.5, the overall shape of the lognormal density distribution is
well preserved.
6. If we approximate the PDF of the column density with
a simple lognormal density distribution, the values obtained
for the variance o
N, N h i
are slightly too small. The deviation
from the actual variance increases toward larger values of
o
,, , h i
.
We conclude that, provided that the variance of the local
density is not much larger than $2.5,
1. the PDF of the column density can be well approximated
by a lognormal density distribution over the full range of pa-
rameter space investigated here; and
2. the width of the lognormal density distribution is well
approximated by the value obtained by simply considering the
change of the variance with slice thickness.
M. A. Dopita acknowledges the support of both the
Australian National University and the Australian Research
Council through his ARC Australian Federation Fellowship.
All authors acknowledge nancial support for this research
through ARC Discovery project grant DP0208445.
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