DENSITY STRUCTURE AND STABILITY OF THE SUBCOMPONENTS IN GIANT MOLECULAR CLOUD COMPLEXES

Radial distribution of internal density has been determined for thirteen subclouds in the three giant molecular cloud complexes accompanying Mon OB1, Mon OB2 and CMa OB1 associations, We modeled their radial density structures with the density distribution of isothermal gas spheres. Most of the subclouds, nine out of the thirteen, are well described by isothermal spheres of single component; while the rest four require an additional component. Total mass and potential energy of each subcloud are also derived from the radial density structure; thermal energy and internal velocity dispersion required for sustaining the density structure are deduced from the isothermal gas model. Our derived masses of the clouds are comparable to the values determined by Blitz (1978) under LTE assumption. This agreement suggests that the correction factor for non-LTE effect on mass-estimate is not far from unity. The ratio of the gravitational potential energy to the kinetic energy of thermal motion is as large as 250; hence the thermal motion alone cannot support these clouds against the gravity. Being supported by turbulence motion with velocities of six to seven times the thermal velocity, the clouds of one-component type seem to be in equilibrium with the gravity; while the clouds of two-component type are likely to be in the stage of gravitational collapse.