Other
Scientific paper
Apr 1997
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997icar..126..243p&link_type=abstract
Icarus, Volume 126, Issue 2, pp. 243-260.
Other
20
Scientific paper
This paper is part of a series dealing with the structure and dynamic stability of rotating protostellar cores. As a first step in our study, we have generated numerical equilibrium models for isentropic, axisymmetric protostellar cores in rapid rotation. These models represent endstates for collapse from two different types of initial precollapse cloud conditions, chosen to be reasonable cases for the formation of low- or intermediate-mass stars on the basis of other theoretical or observational work. Specifically, we consider the equilibrium cores which would form from the collapse of uniformly rotating clouds with the density distributions of singular isothermal spheres and of truncated Gaussian spheres. The major structural differences between the two sequences are largely due to their distinct angular momentum distributions. The protostellar cores which result from singular isothermal initial conditions can be readily interpreted as slowly rotating stars surrounded by massive, rotationally supported disks. A ``star'' and a ``disk'' are not easily distinguished for the Gaussian cases, but the outer regions of these models are typically in rapid, nearly Keplerian rotation. For reasonable assumptions about parameters, the most rapidly rotating protostellar cores that we can calculate accurately correspond to highly flattened disk or star/disk systems of roughly solar mass with equatorial radii of a few AUs or less. For the protostellar cores that result from the collapse of singular isothermal spheres, we find that a significant range in parameter space exists in which protostellar disks are much smaller than the typical dimensions usually considered for the solar nebula. These conditions may be conducive to the formation of relatively compact planetary systems such as 51 Pegasi. Our axisymmetric star/disk models are fully two-dimensional in the sense that both the vertical disk structure and the central star-like regions are resolved. These models will be used as a numerical laboratory for studies of various dynamic processes in protostellar disks.
Durisen Richard H.
Link Robert
Pickett Brian K.
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