In order to probe whether magnetic fields play a significant and
perhaps crucial role in the star formation process, I observe and map
the Zeeman splitting in lines of H I and molecules. I also use the VLA
and the BIMA to map at high resolution the gas temperature, density,
velocity fields, fractional ionization, and magnetic field strengths
in molecular clouds to study their structure and evolution. Finally, I
lead a team at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications
which is supporting radio synthesis imaging by development of
supercomputing resources. This includes real-time archiving of
BIMA telescope data, parallel-processor synthesis array data
reduction code, development of an astronomy digital image library,
and production of advanced visualization software. Further
information may be found here
Selected Publications:
"The Distribution of Molecular and Neutral Gas and Magnetic Fields
near the Bipolar H II Region S106", D.A. Roberts, R.M. Crutcher,
& T.H. Troland, ApJ, 442, 208, 1995
"CN Zeeman Observations of Molecular Cloud Cores", R.M. Crutcher,
T.H. Troland, B. Lazareff, & I. Kazès, ApJ, 456, 217, 1996
"H I Zeeman Measurements of the Magnetic Field in Sagittarius B2",
R.M. Crutcher, D.A. Roberts, D.M. Mehringer, & T.H. Troland, ApJ,
462, L79, 1996
"Radio Synthesis Imaging: A Grand Challenge HPCC Project", Crutcher,
R. M., Baker, M. P., Baxter, G., Pixton, J., Plante, R., Ravlin, H.,
Roberts, D. A. & Sharpe, R., International Journal of Supercomputing
Applications and High Performance Computing, 10, 236, 1996
