NEAR-INFRARED IMAGING POLARIMETRY OF THE SERPENS CLOUD CORE: MAGNETIC FIELD STRUCTURE, OUTFLOWS, AND INFLOWS IN A CLUSTER FORMING CLUMP

We made deep near-infrared (JHKs) imaging polarimetry toward the Serpens cloud core, which is a nearby, active cluster forming region. The polarization vector maps show that the near-infrared reflection light in this region mainly originates from SVS 2 and SVS 20, and enable us to detect 24 small infrared reflection nebulae associated with young stellar objects. Polarization measurements of near-infrared point sources indicate an hourglass-shaped magnetic field, of which the symmetry axis is nearly perpendicular to the elongation of the C(18)O (J = 1-0) or submillimeter continuum emission. The bright part of C(18)O (J = 1-0), submillimeter continuum cores as well as many Class 0/I objects are located just toward the constriction region of the hourglass-shaped magnetic field. Applying the Chandrasekhar and Fermi method and taking into account the recent study on the signal integration effect for the dispersion component of the magnetic field, the magnetic field strength was estimated to be similar to 100 mu G, suggesting that the ambient region of the Serpens cloud core is moderately magnetically supercritical. This suggests that the Serpens cloud core first contracted along the magnetic field as an elongated cloud, which is perpendicular to the magnetic field, and that the central part then contracted across the magnetic field due to the high density in the central region of the cloud core, where star formation is actively continuing. Comparison of this magnetic field with previous observations of molecular gas and large-scale outflows suggests a possibility that the cloud dynamics are controlled by the magnetic field, protostellar outflows, and gravitational inflows. Furthermore, the outflow energy injection rate appears to be larger than the dissipation rate of the turbulent energy in this cloud, indicating that the outflows are the main source of turbulence and that the magnetic field plays an important role both in allowing the outflow energy to escape from the central region of the cloud core and enabling the gravitational inflows from the ambient region to the central region. These characteristics appear to be in good agreement with the outflow-driven turbulence model and imply the importance of the magnetic field to continuous star formation in the center region of the cluster forming region.