Starlight polarization and CO observations towards the Lupus clouds

Abstract

We performed an observational study of the dark filaments Lupus 1 and Lupus 4 using both polarimetric observations of 190 stars and a sample of 72 12CO profiles towards these clouds. We have estimated lower limits to the distances of Lupus 1 and Lupus 4 (* 140 and * 125 pc, respectively). The observational strategy of the survey allows us to compare the projected magnetic field in an extended area around each cloud with the magnetic field direction observed to prevail along the clouds. Lupus 4 could have collapsed along the magnetic field lines, while in Lupus 1 the magnetic field appears to be less ordered, having the major axis of the filaments parallel to the large-scale projected magnetic field. These differences would imply that both filaments have different pattern evolutions. From the CO observations we have probed the velocity fields of the filaments and the spatial extension of the molecular gas with respect to the dust.