Related papers: Protostar Formation in Magnetic Molecular Clouds b…
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…
The evolution of collapsing clouds embedded in different star-forming environments is investigated using three-dimensional non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics simulations considering different cloud metallicities ($Z/\thinspace Z_\odot$ = 0,…
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…
Determining the importance of magnetic fields in star forming environments is hampered by the difficulty of accurately measuring both field strength and gas properties in molecular clouds. We post-process three-dimensional non-ideal…
In this chapter we review recent advances in understanding the roles that magnetic fields play throughout the star formation process, gained through observations and simulations of molecular clouds, the dense, star-forming phase of the…
We have performed smoothed particle radiation magnetohydrodynamics (SPRMHD) simulations of the collapse of rotating, magnetised molecular cloud cores to form protostars. The calculations follow the formation and evolution of the first…
We investigate the effects of magnetic fields and radiative protostellar feedback on the star formation process using self-gravitating radiation magnetohydrodynamical calculations. We present results from a series of calculations of the…
Star formation is a complex process involving the interplay of many physical effects, including gravity, turbulent gas dynamics, magnetic fields and radiation. Our understanding of the process has improved substantially in recent years,…
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…
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…
Non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) is the dominant process. We investigate the effect of magnetic fields (ideal and non-ideal) and turbulence (sub- and transsonic) on the formation of protostars by following the gravitational collapse of…
The transport of angular momentum is capital during the formation of low-mass stars; too little removal and rotation ensures stellar densities are never reached, too much and the absence of rotation means no protoplanetary disks can form.…
We study the self-similar collapse of an isothermal magnetized rotating cloud in the ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) regime. In the limit of small distance from the accreting protostar we find an analytic solution that corresponds to…
In the standard picture of isolated star formation, dense ``starless'' cores are formed out of magnetic molecular clouds due to ambipolar diffusion. Under the simplest spherical geometry, I demonstrate that ``starless'' cores formed this…
We use magnetic collapse models to place some constraints on the formation and angular momentum evolution of circumstellar disks which are embedded in magnetized cloud cores. Previous models have shown that the early evolution of a…
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…
Protostellar core formation is probably much more dynamic, and magnetic fields are probably much less important, than has been previously assumed in the standard model of low-mass star formation. This revised picture has important…
Understanding the collapse of dense molecular cloud cores to stellar densities and the subsequent evolution of the protostar is of importance to model the feedback effects such an object has on its surrounding environment, as well as…
Magnetic diffusion plays a vital role in star formation. We trace its influence from interstellar cloud scales down to star-disk scales. On both scales, we find that magnetic diffusion can be significantly enhanced by the buildup of strong…
(Abridged) We present a series of decaying turbulence simulations that represent a cluster-forming clump within a molecular cloud, investigating the role of magnetic fields on the formation of potential star-forming cores. We present an…