J = 1-0 and 2-1 (C-12)O and (C-13)O emission has been observed over the L204 dark cloud complex, and optical polarization measurements of background stars have been made along the length of the cloud. The CO radial velocities exhibit gradients along the length of the complex which mimic the variations in the mass distribution, and the polarization E vectors suggest that L204 contains a magnetic field predominantly perpendicular to its long dimension. These observations suggest that some external impulse acted on the complex over a large angular extent and that the subsequent evolution of the cloud has been controlled to a considerable extent by a magnetic field. Assuming virial equilibrium, an approximate value for the magnetic field in L204 is 50 micro-G.
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McCutcheon et al. (1986) studied this question.