Related papers: Variable protostellar mass accretion rates in clou…
Low-mass protostars are less luminous than expected. This luminosity problem is important because the observations appear to be inconsistent with some of the basic premises of star formation theory. Two possible solutions are that stars…
A long-standing problem in low-mass star formation is the "luminosity problem," whereby protostars are underluminous compared to the accretion luminosity expected both from theoretical collapse calculations and arguments based on the…
We present the results of fully 3-D hydrodynamic simulations of the gravitational collapse of isolated, turbulent molecular cloud cores. Starting from initial states of hydrostatic equilibrium, we follow the collapse of both singular and…
We calculate the evolution of cloud cores embedded in different envelopes to investigate environmental effects on the mass accretion rate onto protostars. As the initial state, we neglect the magnetic field and cloud rotation, and adopt…
We determine the observational signatures of protostellar cores by coupling two-dimensional radiative transfer calculations with numerical hydrodynamical simulations that predict accretion rates that both decline with time and feature…
Identifying the processes that determine the initial mass function of stars (IMF) is a fundamental problem in star formation theory. One of the major uncertainties is the exact chemical state of the star forming gas and its influence on the…
We study numerically the effect of varying the equation of state (EOS) on the formation of stellar clusters in turbulent molecular clouds. Our results show that the EOS plays an important role in the fragmentation of the clouds, and the…
The polytropic equation of state (EOS) of primordial gas clouds with modest enrichment is computed, motivated by the recent observations of very Fe-deficient stars, [Fe/H]~10^{-3.5}-10^{-5}, such as HE 0107-5240 and CS 29498-043. These…
The evolution of collapsing metal free protostellar clouds is investigated for various masses and initial conditions. We perform hydrodynamical calculations for spherically symmetric clouds taking account of radiative transfer of the…
The asymmetric molecular emission lines from dense cores reveal slow, inward motion in the clouds' outer regions. This motion is present both before and after the formation of a central star. Motivated by these observations, we revisit the…
(abridged version) Identifying the processes that determine the initial mass function of stars (IMF) is a fundamental problem in star formation theory. One of the major uncertainties is the exact chemical state of the star forming gas and…
Star formation through the dynamical magnetized collapse remains an active area of astrophysical research. We carry out a comprehensive exploration on the magnetized gravitational collapse of a non-rotating self-gravitating initially…
Observations indicate that massive stars form in regions of very high surface density, ~1 g cm^-2. Clusters containing massive stars and globular clusters have a comparable column density. The total pressure in clouds of such a column…
In an improved model of protostar mass functions (PMFs), protostars gain mass from isothermal cores in turbulent clumps. Their mass accretion rate is similar to Shu accretion at low mass, and to reduced Bondi accretion at high mass.…
The evolution of radiation emitted during the dynamical collapse of metal-free protostellar clouds is investigated within a spherically symmetric hydrodynamical scheme that includes the transfer of radiation and the chemistry of the…
Observations show a large spread in the luminosities of young protostars, which are frequently explained in the context of episodic accretion. We here test this scenario using numerical simulations following the collapse of a solar mass…
We investigate the role of non-isothermality in gravitational collapse and protostellar accretion by explicitly including the effects of molecular radiative cooling, gas-dust energy transfer, and cosmic ray heating in models of spherical…
We investigate the role of mass infall in the formation and evolution of protostars. To avoid ad hoc initial and boundary conditions, we consider the infall resulting self-consistently from modeling the formation of stellar clusters in…
A model of protostar mass and luminosity evolution in clusters gives new estimates of cluster age, protostar birthrate, accretion rate and mean accretion time. The model assumes constant protostar birthrate, core-clump accretion, and…
We present a preliminary view of the protostellar mass-luminosity relation using current samples of protostars with dynamical mass estimates. To provide a lower limit to the expected luminosities, we adopt an empirical estimate for the…