Magnetic field measurement in TMC-1C using 22.3 GHz CCS Zeeman splitting

Abstract

ABSTRACT Measurement of magnetic fields in dense molecular clouds is essential for understanding the fragmentation process prior to star formation. Radio interferometric observations of CCS 22.3 GHz emission, from the starless core TMC-1C, have been carried out with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array to search for Zeeman splitting of the line in order to constrain the magnetic field strength. Toward a region offset from the dust peak, we report a detection of the Zeeman splitting of the CCS 21–10 transition, with an inferred magnetic field of ∼2 mG. If we interpret the dust peak to be the core of TMC-1C, and the region where we have made a detection of the magnetic field to be the envelope, then our observed value for the magnetic field is consistent with a subcritical mass-to-flux ratio envelope around a core with supercritical mass-to-flux ratio. The ambipolar diffusion time-scale for the formation of the core is consistent with the relevant time-scale based on chemical modelling of the TMC-1C core. This work demonstrates the potential of deep CCS observation to carry out future measurements of magnetic field strengths in dense molecular clouds and, in turn, understand the role of the magnetic field in star formation.