TY - JOUR
T1 - Bridging the gap
T2 - Disk formation in the Class 0 phase with ambipolar diffusion and Ohmic dissipation
AU - Dapp, Wolf B.
AU - Basu, Shantanu
AU - Kunz, Matthew Walter
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank Telemachos Mouschovias for early discussions and Jan Cami for providing computational facilities to run some of the models. W.B.D. was supported by an NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship. S.B. was supported by an NSERC Discovery Grant. M.W.K. was supported by STFC grant ST/F002505/2 during the early phases of this work and is currently supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration through Einstein Postdoctoral Fellowship Award Number PF1-120084 issued by the Chandra X-ray Observatory Center, which is operated by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for and on behalf of the National Aeronautics Space Administration under contract NAS8-03060.
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - Context. Ideal magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations have revealed catastrophic magnetic braking in the protostellar phase, which prevents the formation of a centrifugal disk around a nascent protostar. Aims. We determine if non-ideal MHD, including the effects of ambipolar diffusion and Ohmic dissipation determined from a detailed chemical network model, will allow for disk formation at the earliest stages of star formation. Methods. We employ the axisymmetric thin-disk approximation in order to resolve a dynamic range of 9 orders of magnitude in length and 16 orders of magnitude in density, while also calculating partial ionization using up to 19 species in a detailed chemical equilibrium model. Magnetic braking is applied to the rotation using a steady-state approximation, and a barotropic relation is used to capture the thermal evolution. Results. We resolve the formation of the first and second cores, with expansion waves at the periphery of each, a magnetic diffusion shock, and prestellar infall profiles at larger radii. Power-law profiles in each region can be understood analytically. After the formation of the second core, the centrifugal support rises rapidly and a low-mass disk of radius ≈ 10 R⊙ is formed at the earliest stage of star formation, when the second core has mass ∼10-3 M⊙. The mass-to-flux ratio is ∼104 times the critical value in the central region. Conclusions. A small centrifugal disk can form in the earliest stage of star formation, due to a shut-off of magnetic braking caused by magnetic field dissipation in the first core region. There is enough angular momentum loss to allow the second collapse to occur directly, and a low-mass stellar core to form with a surrounding disk. The disk mass and size will depend upon how the angular momentum transport mechanisms within the disk can keep up with mass infall onto the disk. Accounting only for direct infall, we estimate that the disk will remain ≈ 10 AU, undetectable even by ALMA, for ≈ 4 × 104 yr, representing the early Class 0 phase.
AB - Context. Ideal magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) simulations have revealed catastrophic magnetic braking in the protostellar phase, which prevents the formation of a centrifugal disk around a nascent protostar. Aims. We determine if non-ideal MHD, including the effects of ambipolar diffusion and Ohmic dissipation determined from a detailed chemical network model, will allow for disk formation at the earliest stages of star formation. Methods. We employ the axisymmetric thin-disk approximation in order to resolve a dynamic range of 9 orders of magnitude in length and 16 orders of magnitude in density, while also calculating partial ionization using up to 19 species in a detailed chemical equilibrium model. Magnetic braking is applied to the rotation using a steady-state approximation, and a barotropic relation is used to capture the thermal evolution. Results. We resolve the formation of the first and second cores, with expansion waves at the periphery of each, a magnetic diffusion shock, and prestellar infall profiles at larger radii. Power-law profiles in each region can be understood analytically. After the formation of the second core, the centrifugal support rises rapidly and a low-mass disk of radius ≈ 10 R⊙ is formed at the earliest stage of star formation, when the second core has mass ∼10-3 M⊙. The mass-to-flux ratio is ∼104 times the critical value in the central region. Conclusions. A small centrifugal disk can form in the earliest stage of star formation, due to a shut-off of magnetic braking caused by magnetic field dissipation in the first core region. There is enough angular momentum loss to allow the second collapse to occur directly, and a low-mass stellar core to form with a surrounding disk. The disk mass and size will depend upon how the angular momentum transport mechanisms within the disk can keep up with mass infall onto the disk. Accounting only for direct infall, we estimate that the disk will remain ≈ 10 AU, undetectable even by ALMA, for ≈ 4 × 104 yr, representing the early Class 0 phase.
KW - Accretion, accretion disks
KW - Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD)
KW - Protoplanetary disks
KW - Stars: formation
KW - Stars: magnetic field
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U2 - 10.1051/0004-6361/201117876
DO - 10.1051/0004-6361/201117876
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84860175534
SN - 0004-6361
VL - 541
JO - Astronomy and Astrophysics
JF - Astronomy and Astrophysics
M1 - A35
ER -