Fragmentation of magnetically-supported, weakly-ionized molecular clouds

molecular clouds;magnetic fields;ambipolar diffusion;star formation

Christie, Duncan A.

关键词: molecular clouds;    magnetic fields;    ambipolar diffusion;    star formation;   

Others  :  https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/24373/Christie_Duncan.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

美国|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

We follow the evolution and fragmentation of isolated, magnetically-supported, weakly-ionized, self-gravitating molecular clouds in three dimensions. Although the model cloudsare supported by the magnetic field, high-density, magnetically-supercritical fragmentsform due to the drift between the ions and the neutrals, ambipolar diffusion. To followthe evolution of the model clouds, we extended the publicly-available Zeus-MP code toinclude the effects of nonideal magnetohydrodynamics and have modified several algo-rithms to improve accuracy and convergence. We present the results of a parameter studywhich varies the ionization fraction, mass-to-flux ratio, and velocity perturbation in themodel clouds.