Molecular Clouds Are Not Fractal: A Characteristic Size Scale in Taurus

Abstract

A simple, robust method of determining whether molecular clouds are fractal is described. The method is applied to the Taurus Molecular Cloud, which is shown to exhibit a change in the character of the structure on a scale of 0.25--0.5 pc, close to the thermal Jeans length at the gas densities probed by 13CO. The method is applicable to any data cube of optically thin emission.