Statistics – Computation
Scientific paper
May 2000
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000dda....31.1006t&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DDA Meeting #31, #10.06; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 32, p.866
Statistics
Computation
Scientific paper
We demonstrate that it is possible for short period binary star systems to form from a single, rapidly rotating, equilibrium protostellar gas cloud via a natural fission process. This is analogous to the process by which rapidly spinning drops of fluid have been observed to break in two during drop dynamics experiments onboard the space shuttle. In order to demonstrate that fission works in the context of binary star formation, we have used a three-dimensional, computational fluid dynamics technique to, first, construct a rapidly rotating, self-gravitating, equilibrium barlike structure that, by all accounts, appears to be a compressible analog of an incompressible Riemann ellipsoid. Then by slowly cooling this configuration and following its cooling evolution in a fully self-consistent fashion, we have demonstrated that the system contracts along an ellipsoid-dumbbell-binary sequence. Although the hypothesis that binary stars may form via a process of fission has been around for more than 100 years, it has been a difficult hypothesis to test because of the nonlinear dynamical processes involved. This is the first demonstration that fission works in the context of realistic protostellar gas clouds. This work has been supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation through grant AST-9528424, by NASA through grant NAG5-8497, and by a grant of high-performance-computing time through NPACI on machines at the San Diego Supercomputing Center.
Cazes John E.
Tohline Joel E.
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