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Table 1

Fitted projection-correction factors 𝒞(N, SDR) from the empirical relation 𝒞(N, SDR) = 𝒞[1 − e−SDR/S0](N/100)β using 𝒞 = 1.94, S0 = 21.8, and β = 0.173.

N SDR
5 10 20 50 100 200
FWHMbeam [arcsec] (ALMA @ 100 GHz)
11.4 5.7 2.85 1.14 0.57 0.29 0
Physical resolution [pc] at 3.6 kpc
0.20 0.10 0.05 0.02 0.010 0.005 0
5 0.24 0.43 0.69 1.04 1.14 1.16 1.16
10 0.27 0.48 0.78 1.17 1.29 1.30 1.30
20 0.30 0.54 0.88 1.32 1.45 1.47 1.47
50 0.35 0.63 1.03 1.55 1.70 1.72 1.72
100 0.40 0.71 1.16 1.74 1.92 1.94 1.94
200 0.45 0.80 1.31 1.97 2.16 2.19 2.19

Notes. Values represent the mean ratio of intrinsic 3D to projected 2D NN separations for a uniform distribution under finite spatial dynamic range (SDR = FoV/FWHMbeam). The tabulated values can be reproduced using the projection_correction(N, SDR) function from the corespacing3d package (Barnes & Henshaw 2026). The second and third rows list the corresponding beam FWHM in arcseconds and physical resolution in parsecs, assuming an ALMA primary beam of 57″ at 100 GHz and a typical clump diameter of 1 pc (distance 3.6 kpc). For large samples (N ≳ 100) and well-resolved maps (SDR ≳ 30), the ratio saturates near 𝒞 ≈ 2.0, whereas poorly resolved or low-N cases converge to 𝒞 ≈ 1, approaching the geometric limit 4/π ≃ 1.27. For reference, an ALMA 100 GHz pointing imaged at 1″ resolution corresponds to SDR ≈ 57, equivalent to a spatial resolution of ~ 0.018 pc for a 1 pc field at 3.6 kpc. The calibration is based on idealised, complete simulations; when applied to real data with finite sensitivity, blending, and Nobs < N, these values should be treated as approximate corrections and, if evaluated with Nobs, as lower limits on the true 3D spacing (see Sect. 5.3).

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