Fragmentation Instability of Molecular Clouds: Numerical Simulations

Details Fragmentation Instability of Molecular Clouds: Numerical Simulations Fragmentation Instability of Molecular Clouds: Numerical Simulations

2000-02-04

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0002092v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

25pp, 20 small eps figures, in press ApJ, April 1, 2000

Scientific paper

10.1086/308541

We simulate fragmentation and gravitational collapse of cold, magnetized molecular clouds. We explore the nonlinear development of an instability mediated by ambipolar diffusion, in which the collapse rate is intermediate to fast gravitational collapse and slow quasistatic collapse. Initially uniform stable clouds fragment into elongated clumps with masses largely determined by the cloud temperature, but substantially larger than the thermal Jeans mass. The clumps are asymmetric, with significant rotation and vorticity, and lose magnetic flux as they collapse. The clump shapes, intermediate collapse rates, and infall profiles may help explain observations not easily fit by contemporary slow or rapid collapse models.

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