The large-scale H I structure of the Small Magellanic Cloud

We combine new Parkes telescope observations of neutral hydrogen (HE) in the SMC with an Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) aperture synthesis mosaic to obtain a set of images sensitive to all angular (spatial) scales between 98 arcsec (30 pc) and 4 deg (4 kpc). The new data are used to study the H I spatial power spectrum over a range of contiguous scale sizes wider than those previously achieved in any other galaxy, including our own. The spatial power spectrum closely obeys the relation P(k) approaches k(sup gamma), with gamma = -3.04 +/- 0.02, similar to values obtained by other authors for our own Galaxy which are in the range gamma = -3.0 to -2.8. This is surprising given the very different morphology, gas-richness, star-formation rate, and evolution of the two systems, and may imply similar mechanisms for structure formation. One interpretation of the P(k) power-law is that the interstellar medium (ISM) of the SMC is fractal in nature, consisting of a hierarchy of H I cloud structures created, e.g., by homogeneous turbulence. A kinematic study of the H I data reveals the existence of three supergiant shells which were previously undetectable in the ATCA data alone. (Author)