Properties of Star-Forming Cores: Dependence of the Mass and Angular Momentum on the Initial Magnetic Field

Details Properties of Star-Forming Cores: Dependence of the Mass and Angular Momentum on the Initial Magnetic Field Properties of Star-Forming Cores: Dependence of the Mass and Angular Momentum on the Initial Magnetic Field

Dec 1995

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995aas...187.2504b&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, 187th AAS Meeting, #25.04; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 27, p.1322

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Observations reveal a picture of dense (n ga 10(4) cm(-3) ) molecular cloud cores embedded in much more massive, lower density (n ~ 10(2) - 10(3) cm(-3) ) molecular cloud envelopes. The low fraction of the total cloud mass contained in these cores and their tendency to give birth to stars soon after they are formed ( ~ 50% of dense cores contain detectable infrared sources) are consistent with the theoretical picture of magnetically supercritical core formation by ambipolar diffusion, with the cloud envelopes remaining supported by magnetic fields. We review a key result from a recent calculation (Basu and Mouschovias 1995, ApJ, 453, 271) which reveals a scaling law between the initial (ambient) magnetic field and the mass M_core and specific angular momentum (J/M)_core of a supercritical core. The magnetic field, through the processes of ambipolar diffusion and magnetic braking, enforces the approximate scaling laws M_core ~ B_0(-1) and (J/M)_core ~ B_0(-2) , where B_0 is the ambient magnetic field. A physical explanation of this result is provided.

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