PDF properties of ISM turbulence

Density Probability Distribution Functions (PDFs) are a classic statistical way to study properties of Interstellar Medium (ISM) turbulence. In our three-dimensional MHD simulations, density PDFs of the position-position velocity (PPV) spaces are close to a log-normal distribution. the PDF widths depend on the plasma parameters such as magnetic strength and sonic Mach number. Futhermore, we compare these simulations results to Galactic molecular clouds observed by Jackson et. al (2006). By fitting of the velocity dispersion in the spectral line observation, volume density PDFs of the defined molecular clouds indicate that the sound speeds of the turbulences seem to have a few times larger than the simulation results. In order to understand the inconsistency with general characteristics of turbulence, we consider other simulations inducing the turbulent flow randomly at small driving scales. We find that the density PDF width decreases at more smaller driving scale. Finally, the simulations suggest that sources of ISM turbulence in Galactic molecular clouds can be important on small scales.