Related papers: Testing Magnetic Star Formation Theory
Star formation in our Galaxy occurs in molecular clouds that are self-gravitating, highly turbulent, and magnetized. We study the conditions under which cloud cores inherit large-scale magnetic field morphologies and how the field is…
We use magnetohydrodynamical simulations of converging flows to investigate the process of molecular cloud formation and evolution out of the magnetised ISM. Here, we investigate whether the observed subcritical HI clouds can become…
We (Li et al. 2009; Paper-I) compared the magnetic field directions inferred from polarimetry data obtained from 100-pc scale inter-cloud media (ICM) and from sub-pc scale molecular cloud cores. The highly correlated result led us to…
We extend our earlier work on ambipolar diffusion induced formation of protostellar cores in isothermal sheet-like magnetic interstellar clouds, by studying nonaxisymmetric collapse for the physically interesting regime of magnetically…
We present the results of a new survey of 23 molecular clouds for the Zeeman effect in OH undertaken with the ATNF Parkes 64-m radio telescope and the NRAO Green Bank 43-m radio telescope. The Zeeman effect was clearly detected in the cloud…
The most accurate measurements of magnetic fields in star-forming gas are based on the Zeeman observations analyzed by Crutcher et al. (2010). We show that their finding that the 3D magnetic field scales approximately as density$^{0.65}$…
One of the key problems in star formation research is to determine the role of magnetic fields. Starting from the atomic inter-cloud medium (ICM) which has density nH ~ 1 per cubic cm, gas must accumulate from a volume several hundred pc…
(abridged) Together with gravity, turbulence, and stellar feedback, magnetic fields (B-fields) are thought to play a critical role in the evolution of molecular clouds and star formation processes. We aim to map the morphology and measure…
We present the results of eighteen magnetohydrodynamical calculations of the collapse of a molecular cloud core to form a protostar. Some calculations include radiative transfer in the flux-limited diffusion approximation while others…
We employ the first fully three-dimensional simulation to study the role of magnetic fields and ion-neutral friction in regulating gravitationally-driven fragmentation of molecular clouds. The cores in an initially subcritical cloud develop…
We revisit the relation between magnetic-field strength ($B$) and gas density ($\rho$) for contracting interstellar clouds and fragments (or, cores), which is central in observationally determining the dynamical importance of magnetic…
We present an analysis of the relationship between the orientation of magnetic fields and filaments that form in 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations of cluster-forming, turbulent molecular cloud clumps. We examine simulated cloud clumps with…
We study numerically the ambipolar diffusion-driven evolution of non-rotating, magnetically subcritical, disk-like molecular clouds, assuming axisymmetry. Previous similar studies have concentrated on the formation of single magnetically…
In the present-day universe, magnetic fields play such essential roles in star formation as angular momentum transport and outflow driving, which control circumstellar disc formation/fragmentation and also the star formation efficiency.…
We study effect of magnetic field on massive dense core formation in colliding unequal molecular clouds by performing magnetohydrodynamic simulations with sub-parsec resolution (0.015 pc) that can resolve the molecular cores. Initial clouds…
Linear analysis of the formation of protostellar cores in planar magnetic interstellar clouds yields information about length scales involved in star formation. Combining these length scales with various distributions of other environmental…
We study the effect that non-equilibrium chemistry in dynamical models of collapsing molecular cloud cores has on measurements of the magnetic field in these cores, the degree of ionization, and the mean molecular weight of ions. We find…
Isolated low-mass stars are formed in dense cores of molecular clouds. In the standard picture, the cores are envisioned to condense out of strongly magnetized clouds through ambipolar diffusion. Most previous calculations based on this…
We investigate the formation and evolution of giant molecular clouds (GMCs) by the collision of convergent warm neutral medium (WNM) streams in the interstellar medium, in the presence of magnetic fields and ambipolar diffusion (AD),…
In giant molecular clouds (GMCs), shocks driven by converging turbulent flows create high-density, strongly-magnetized regions that are locally sheetlike. In previous work, we showed that within these layers, dense filaments and embedded…