subvirial

English

Etymology

sub- +‎ virial

Adjective

subvirial (not comparable)

1. Lacking one or more factors (such as mass or temperature) that would lead to interaction between molecules or particles; not quite virial.
   • 2012, E. Falgarone, F. Boulanger, G. Duvert, Fragmentation of Molecular Clouds and Star Formation, →ISBN:

     The brightest and most massive parts of many molecular cloud complexes appear close to virial equilibrium (Larson 1981), but detailed mapping of complexes shows that in many cases the less massive and filamentary clouds farther from the center of a complex tend to be subvirial : they have too little mass to bind the internal motions in their line widths.

   • 2016, Mikhail Klassen, Ralph E. Pudritz, Helen Kirk, “Filamentary flow and magnetic geometry in evolving cluster-forming molecular cloud clumps”, in arXiv‎^[1]:

     Magnetic fields aligned more parallel in the subvirial cloud and more perpendicular in the denser, marginally bound cloud.