Detection of the CN Zeeman Effect in Molecular Clouds

Abstract

Observations of the Zeeman effect in the 3 mm lines of CN have been carried out with the 30 m IRAM telescope toward seven dense molecular clouds. Detections were achieved toward the Orion Molecular Cloud 1 (OMC1), toward two cores in the DR21OH molecular cloud, and probably toward the M17SW molecular cloud. The line-of-sight magnetic field strengths inferred are B_los(OMC1)=-0.36+/-0.08, B_los(DR21OH_1)=-0.36+/-0.10, B_los(DR21OH_2)=-0.71+/-0.12, and B_los(M17SW)=-0.33+/-0.14 mG. The theoretical implications of these results are discussed.