The mean radial density profile (western component) perpendicular to the Vela C ridge (black line in Fig. 2, left), shown here in log-log format. The complementary eastern profile (in the direction of the star cluster) is given in Fig. 4. The area in yellow shows the dispersion of the radial profile along the filament. The solid blue line corresponds to the effective 11.5′′ HPBW resolution of the column density map (0.04 pc at 700 pc) used to construct the profile. The dotted blue line indicates the Gaussian profile, while the dotted red line shows the best fit to the model, often called the Plummer profile.