We present the results of a study of the submillimetre wavelength continuum
emission, at 450 and 850 mu m, encompassing the OMC1 region in the norther
n part of the Orion A cloud, and focusing on the structure and star formati
on in an area of about similar to 70 arcmin(2) (similar to 1.2 pc(2)). Our
observations are 3 times deeper in flux than previous submillimetre observa
tions of this region and we have found a number of pre-stellar dust clumps
in the region from which mass functions were determined. Our clump mass fun
ctions include objects down to 0.1 M-circle dot and the power-law slope of
-1.5 is similar to that generally found from spectral line observations of
molecular gas clumps. The data do not show the steeper slope of -2.5 for ma
sses above 0.5 M-circle dot identified by Motte et al. (1998) in dust maps
of the rho Ophiuchus low-mass star-forming region, possibly indicating diff
erent collapse processes. Polarimetry data for the north-east bar and KL re
gions of OMC1 were also obtained, and it is apparent that the field orienta
tions with respect to cloud elongation differ between star-forming and non-
star-forming regions. The main OMC1 ridge is consistent with collapse down
held lines while the north-east bar has a field structure roughly outlining
the HII region. The dominant physical processes apear to be pressure from
the expanding HII region and fragmentation on the Jeans scale, rather than
magnetic effects.