skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Formation and evolution of protostellar accretion discs – I. Angular-momentum budget, gravitational self-regulation, and numerical convergence

Journal Article · · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
ORCiD logo [1];  [2]
  1. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)
  2. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States); Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Here, we investigate the formation and early evolution of a protostellar disc from a magnetized prestellar core using non-ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations including ambipolar diffusion and Ohmic dissipation. The dynamical contraction of the prestellar core ultimately leads to the formation of a first hydrostatic core, after ambipolar diffusion decouples the magnetic field from the predominantly neutral gas. The hydrostatic core accumulates angular momentum from the infalling material, evolving into a rotationally supported torus; this ‘first hydrostatic torus’ then forms an accreting protostar and a rotationally supported disc. The disc spreads out by gravitational instability, reaching ~30 au in diameter at ~3 kyr after protostar formation. The total mass and angular momentum of the protostar–disc system are determined mainly by accretion of gas from an infalling pseudo-disc, which has low specific angular momentum because of magnetic braking; their removal from the protostar–disc system by outflow and disc magnetic braking are negligible, in part because the magnetic field is poorly coupled there. The redistribution of angular momentum within the protostar–disc system is facilitated mainly by gravitational instability; this allows formation of relatively large discs even when the specific angular momentum of infalling material is low. We argue that such discs should remain marginally unstable as they grow (with Toomre Q ~ 1–2), an idea that is broadly consistent with recent observational estimates for Class 0/I discs. We discuss the numerical convergence of our results, and show that properly treating the inner boundary condition is crucial for achieving convergence at an acceptable computational cost.

Research Organization:
Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
OSTI ID:
1817218
Journal Information:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. 502, Issue 4; ISSN 0035-8711
Publisher:
Royal Astronomical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (91)

Protostar Formation in Magnetic Molecular Clouds beyond Ion Detachment. II. Typical Axisymmetric Solution journal May 2007
The conductivity of dense molecular gas journal February 1999
On the diversity and statistical properties of protostellar discs journal January 2018
Hall effect in protostellar disc formation and evolution journal January 2020
Dust coagulation feedback on magnetohydrodynamic resistivities in protostellar collapse journal October 2020
There is no magnetic braking catastrophe: low-mass star cluster and protostellar disc formation with non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics journal August 2019
Constraining the Chemical Signatures and the Outburst Mechanism of the Class 0 Protostar HOPS 383 journal November 2020
Bridging the gap: disk formation in the Class 0 phase with ambipolar diffusion and Ohmic dissipation journal April 2012
Gravitoviscous protoplanetary disks with a dust component: I. The importance of the inner sub-au region journal July 2019
Non-Ideal mhd Effects and Magnetic Braking Catastrophe in Protostellar disk Formation journal August 2011
Effect of grain size on differential desorption of volatile species and on non-ideal MHD diffusivity journal May 2018
The Nonisothermal Stage of Magnetic star Formation. i. Formulation of the Problem and Method of Solution journal March 2009
The VLA/ALMA Nascent Disk and Multiplicity (VANDAM) Survey of Orion Protostars. II. A Statistical Characterization of Class 0 and Class I Protostellar Disks journal February 2020
Disc formation in turbulent massive cores: circumventing the magnetic braking catastrophe: Disc formation in turbulent massive cores journal April 2012
The non-isothermal stage of magnetic star formation - II. Results: Non-isothermal magnetic star formation journal September 2010
Magnetic braking in weakly ionized media journal September 1987
Ambipolar diffusion in low-mass star formation: I. General comparison with the ideal magnetohydrodynamic case journal February 2016
Dense cores in dark clouds. II - NH3 observations and star formation journal March 1983
Disk Formation in Magnetized Clouds Enabled by the hall Effect journal May 2011
Does Misalignment between Magnetic Field and Angular Momentum Enhance or Suppress Circumstellar Disk Formation? journal November 2018
ALMA Survey of Lupus Protoplanetary Disks. II. Gas Disk Radii journal May 2018
The Magnetic Decoupling Stage of Star Formation journal March 2001
Dust Polarization toward Embedded Protostars in Ophiuchus with ALMA. III. Survey Overview journal October 2019
Dense Cores in Dark Clouds. XIV. N 2 H + (1–0) Maps of Dense Cloud Cores journal June 2002
Magnetically regulated collapse in the B335 protostar? I. ALMA observations of the polarized dust emission journal March 2018
Grand-design Spiral Arms in a Young Forming Circumstellar Disk journal January 2017
Protostellar collapse: the conditions to form dust-rich protoplanetary disks journal September 2020
Gravitoturbulence and the excitation of small-scale parametric instability in astrophysical discs journal June 2017
The First Two Thousand Years of Star Formation journal May 2019
Radiation Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Protostellar Collapse: Nonideal Magnetohydrodynamic Effects and Early Formation of Circumstellar Disks journal March 2015
Magnetic Fields in Molecular Clouds: Observations Confront Theory journal August 1999
Protostellar disk formation and transport of angular momentum during magnetized core collapse journal July 2012
The effect of ambipolar diffusion on magnetic braking of molecular cloud cores - an exact, time-dependent solution journal September 1986
Bimodality of Circumstellar disk Evolution Induced by the hall Current journal September 2015
From Dusty Filaments to Cores to Stars: An Infrared Extinction Study of Lupus 3 journal August 2005
On the Effects of Self-obscuration in the (Sub)Millimeter Spectral Indices and the Appearance of Protostellar Disks journal November 2018
The Effect of Misalignment between the Rotation Axis and Magnetic Field on the Circumstellar Disk journal July 2020
Note on the collapse of magnetic interstellar clouds journal November 1976
CN Zeeman measurements in star formation regions journal May 2008
Nonaxisymmetric evolution in protostellar disks journal November 1994
Numerical Calculations of the Dynamics of a Collapsing Proto-Star* journal August 1969
Evolution of protostellar outflow around low-mass protostar journal March 2013
Dust growth in the interstellar medium: how do accretion and coagulation interplay?: Dust growth through accretion and coagulation journal March 2012
The breakup of self-gravitating rings, tori, and thick accretion disks journal October 1990
Magnetic Field Structure of Dense Cores Using Spectroscopic Methods journal February 2019
Gravitational Instabilities in Circumstellar Disks journal September 2016
Faint disks around classical T Tauri stars: Small but dense enough to form planets journal April 2014
The mass Dependence Between Protoplanetary Disks and Their Stellar Hosts journal June 2013
SCUBA Polarization Measurements of the Magnetic Field Strengths in the L183, L1544, and L43 Prestellar Cores journal January 2004
Ambipolar Diffusion and Star Formation: Formation and Contraction of Axisymmetric Cloud Cores. II. Results journal September 1993
Magnetically Controlled Spasmodic Accretion during Star Formation. II. Results journal January 2005
Dust coagulation and fragmentation in molecular clouds: I. How collisions between dust aggregates alter the dust size distribution journal June 2009
A Semianalytic Model for Supercritical Core Collapse: Self‐Similar Evolution and the Approach to Protostar Formation journal August 1997
The First Detection of 13 C 17 O in a Protoplanetary Disk: A Robust Tracer of Disk Gas Mass journal September 2019
Magnetic Braking, Ambipolar Diffusion, and the Formation of Cloud Cores and Protostars. III. Effect of the Initial Mass-to-Flux Ratio journal November 1995
Nonlinear Outcome of Gravitational Instability in Cooling, Gaseous Disks journal May 2001
The initial conditions of isolated star formation - VI. SCUBA mapping of pre-stellar cores journal July 2005
Magnetic interchange instability in accretion disks journal May 1995
Dense Cores Mapped in Ammonia: A Database journal November 1999
A census of dense cores in the Aquila cloud complex: SPIRE/PACS observations from the Herschel Gould Belt survey journal November 2015
Coherent Dense Cores. I. NH 3 Observations journal September 1998
A submillimetre continuum survey of pre-protostellar cores journal May 1994
Does Magnetic-Field-Rotation Misalignment Solve the Magnetic Braking Catastrophe in Protostellar disk Formation? journal August 2013
Decoupling of magnetic fields in collapsing protostellar envelopes and disc formation and fragmentation journal October 2017
The Disk Substructures at High Angular Resolution Project (DSHARP). I. Motivation, Sample, Calibration, and Overview journal December 2018
The Mass Evolution of Protostellar Disks and Envelopes in the Perseus Molecular Cloud journal March 2019
Formation and Evolution of Disks Around Young Stellar Objects journal April 2020
Alma Survey of Lupus Protoplanetary Disks. i. dust and gas Masses journal August 2016
The Hall effect in star formation: The Hall effect in star formation journal March 2012
Magnetic Fields in the Formation of Sun-Like Stars journal August 2006
The influence of turbulence during magnetized core collapse and its consequences on low-mass star formation journal May 2013
New Constraints From Dust Lines on the Surface Densities of Protoplanetary Disks journal June 2019
High‐Resolution Submillimeter Constraints on Circumstellar Disk Structure journal April 2007
The size distribution of interstellar grains journal October 1977
13C17O suggests gravitational instability in the HL Tau disc journal January 2020
Magnetic braking of an aligned rotator during star formation - an exact, time-dependent solution journal April 1980
Star Formation and the Hall Effect journal January 2004
Self-regulated gravitational accretion in protostellar discs: Protostellar disc accretion journal September 2007
Hydromagnetic Accretion Shocks around Low-Mass Protostars journal June 1996
Magnetic braking, ambipolar diffusion, and the formation of cloud cores and protostars. 1: Axisymmetric solutions journal September 1994
What determines the formation and characteristics of protoplanetary discs? journal March 2020
Dynamical Collapse of Nonrotating Magnetic Molecular Cloud Cores: Evolution through Point‐Mass Formation journal September 1998
First Observations of the Magnetic Field Geometry in Prestellar Cores journal July 2000
Conditions for circumstellar disc formation: effects of initial cloud configuration and sink treatment journal January 2014
Resolved images of a protostellar outflow driven by an extended disk wind journal December 2016
Signs of Early-Stage disk Growth Revealed with alma journal January 2017
Chemical solver to compute molecule and grain abundances and non-ideal MHD resistivities in prestellar core-collapse calculations journal July 2016
Different modes of star formation – II. Gas accretion phase of initially subcritical star-forming clouds journal March 2020
Protostellar disk formation by a nonrotating, nonaxisymmetric collapsing cloud: model and comparison with observations journal March 2020
Properties of Dense Cores Embedded in Musca Derived from Extinction Maps and 13 CO, C 18 O, and NH 3 Emission Lines journal February 2017
The VLA Nascent Disk and Multiplicity Survey of Perseus Protostars (VANDAM). V. 18 Candidate Disks around Class 0 and I Protostars in the Perseus Molecular Cloud journal October 2018

Similar Records

Formation and evolution of protostellar accretion discs – II. From 3D simulation to a simple semi-analytic model of Class 0/I discs
Journal Article · Thu Sep 23 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society · OSTI ID:1817218
PROTOSTELLAR ACCRETION FLOWS DESTABILIZED BY MAGNETIC FLUX REDISTRIBUTION
Journal Article · Thu Sep 20 00:00:00 EDT 2012 · Astrophysical Journal · OSTI ID:1817218
+1 more
THE ROLE OF TURBULENT MAGNETIC RECONNECTION IN THE FORMATION OF ROTATIONALLY SUPPORTED PROTOSTELLAR DISKS
Journal Article · Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 2012 · Astrophysical Journal · OSTI ID:1817218

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
accretion
accretion discs
magnetic fields
MHD
stars: formation
ISM: clouds