^13^CO cores in the Taurus molecular cloud

We demonstrate that core blending exists, i.e., combined structures that are incoherent in velocity but continuous in column density. The core velocity dispersion (CVD), which is the variance of the core velocity difference {delta}v, exhibits a power-law behavior as a function of the apparent separation L: CVD(km/s){prop.to}L(pc)^0.7^. This is similar to Larson's law for the velocity dispersion of the gas.

The peak velocities of ^13^CO cores do not deviate from the centroid velocities of the ambient ^12^CO gas by more than half of the line width. The low velocity dispersion among cores, the close similarity between CVD and Larson's law, and the small separation between core centroid velocities and the ambient gas all suggest that molecular cores condense out of the diffuse gas without additional energy from star formation or significant impact from converging flows.