Ambipolar-Diffusion Timescale, Star-Formation Timescale, and the Ages of Molecular Clouds: Is There a Discrepancy?

Details Ambipolar-Diffusion Timescale, Star-Formation Timescale, and the Ages of Molecular Clouds: Is There a Discrepancy? Ambipolar-Diffusion Timescale, Star-Formation Timescale, and the Ages of Molecular Clouds: Is There a Discrepancy?

2004-09-03

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0409089v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. 5 pages, 4 figures, uses emulateapj.cls

Scientific paper

10.1086/424901

We re-examine critically the estimates of the duration of different phases of star formation and the lifetimes of molecular clouds, based on the ages of T-Tauri stars, age spreads of stars in clusters, and statistics of pre-stellar cores. We show that all available observational data are consistent with lifetimes of molecular clouds comparable to 10 Myr, as well as with the predictions of the theory of self-initiated, ambipolar-diffusion--controlled star formation. We conclude that there exists no observational support for either "young" molecular clouds or "rapid" star formation.

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