Related papers: Recent OH Zeeman Observations: Do they Really Cont…
The ambipolar-diffusion theory of star formation predicts the formation of fragments in molecular clouds with mass-to-flux ratios greater than that of the parent-cloud envelope. By contrast, scenarios of turbulence-induced fragmentation do…
We report here observations of the Zeeman effect in the 18-cm lines of OH in the envelope regions surrounding four molecular cloud cores toward which detections of B(LOS) have been achieved in the same lines, and evaluate the ratio of mass…
Crutcher, Hakobian, and Troland (2009) used OH Zeeman observations of four nearby molecular dark clouds to show that the ratio of mass to magnetic flux was smaller in the ~0.1 pc cores than in the ~1 pc envelopes, in contradiction to the…
Recent observational results for magnetic fields in molecular clouds reviewed by Crutcher (2012) seem to be inconsistent with the predictions of the ambipolar diffusion theory of star formation. These include the measured decrease in mass…
We had recently re-analyzed in a self-consistent way OH-Zeeman observations in four molecular-cloud envelopes and we had shown that, contrary to claims by Crutcher et al., there is no evidence that the mass-to-flux ratio decreases from the…
The ratio of mass and magnetic flux determines the relative importance of magnetic and gravitational forces in the evolution of molecular clouds and their cores. Its measurement is thus central in discriminating between different theories…
Recent measurements of the Zeeman effect in dark-cloud cores provide important tests for theories of cloud dynamics and prestellar core formation. In this Letter we report results of simulated Zeeman measurements, based on radiative…
We present synthetic OH Zeeman splitting measurements of a super-Alfvenic model of molecular clouds. We select dense cores from synthetic 13CO maps computed from the largest simulation to date of supersonic and super-Alfvenic turbulence.…
This paper re-examines the problem of ambipolar diffusion as a mechanism for the production and runaway evolution of centrally condensed molecular cloud cores, a process that has been termed the gravomagneto catastrophe. Our calculation…
Though flux freezing is a good approximation frequently assumed for molecular clouds, ambipolar diffusion (AD) is inevitable at certain scales. The scale at which AD sets in can be a crucial parameter for turbulence and the star formation…
The formation of stars is governed by the intricate interplay of nonideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) effects, gravity, and turbulence. Computational challenges have hindered a comprehensive 3D exploration of this interplay, posing a…
The Zeeman effect and dust grain alignment are two major methods for probing magnetic fields (B-fields) in molecular clouds, largely motivated by the study of star formation, as the B-field may regulate gravitational contraction and channel…
In a previous paper we formulated the problem of the formation and evolution of fragments (or cores) in magnetically-supported, self-gravitating molecular clouds in axisymmetric geometry, accounting for the effects of ambipolar diffusion…
We have carried out an extensive survey of magnetic field strengths toward dark cloud cores in order to test models of star formation: ambipolar-diffusion driven or turbulence driven. The survey involved $\sim500$ hours of observing with…
A comparison of accretion and (turbulent) magnetic diffusion timescales for sheets and filaments demonstrates that dense star-forming clouds generally will -- under realistic conditions -- become supercritical due to mass accretion on…
We numerically reproduce the density profiles for filaments that are in magnetohydrostatic and pressure equilibrium with their surroundings obtained in Tomisaka (2014) and show that these equilibria are dynamically stable. If the effect of…
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…
The gravitational instability of a filamentary molecular cloud in non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics is investigated. The filament is assumed to be in hydrostatic equilibrium. We add the effect of ambipolar diffusion to the filament which is…
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…
We present results from an extensive set of simulations of gravitational fragmentation in the presence of magnetic fields and ambipolar diffusion. The average fragmentation spacing in the nonlinear phase of evolution is in excellent…