Abstract

It is now well understood that stars are formed in the interiors of dense, gravitationally bound molecular cloud cores that are both magnetized and turbulent. But the relative role played by the magnetic field and the turbulence in cloud formation and evolution and in the subsequent star formation is a matter of debate. In a magnetically dominated scenario, the magnetic field geometry of the cores is expected to be inherited unchanged from their low density envelope, even for an hour glass geometry of the field, unless the action of turbulence disturbs it. We carried out polarimetry of stars projected on starless molecular clouds, LDN 183 and LDN 1544, in R-filter. The comparison of these fields with those in the interiors of the cloud cores inferred from the sub-mm polarization shows that both magnetic field and turbulence are important in the cloud formation and evolution of star formation.