Related papers: Consistency of Ambipolar Diffusion Models with Inf…
Circumstellar disks are expected to form early in the process that leads to the formation of a young star, during the collapse of the dense molecular cloud core. It is currently not well understood at what stage of the collapse the disk is…
We investigate the formation and early evolution of a protostellar disc from a magnetized pre-stellar core using non-ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations including ambipolar diffusion and Ohmic dissipation. The dynamical contraction…
For the Class 0 protostar, L1527, we compare 131 polarization vectors from SCUPOL/JCMT, SHARP/CSO and TADPOL/CARMA observations with the corresponding model polarization vectors of four ideal-MHD, non-turbulent, cloud core collapse models.…
Building on our previous hydrodynamic study of the angular momenta of cloud cores formed during gravitational collapse of star-forming molecular gas in our previous work, we now examine core properties assuming ideal magnetohydrodynamics…
We present measurements of the mean dense core lifetimes in numerical simulations of magnetically supercritical, turbulent, isothermal molecular clouds, in order to compare with observational determinations. "Prestellar" lifetimes (given as…
Given the low ionization fraction of molecular clouds, ambipolar diffusion is thought to be an integral process in star formation. However, chemical and radiative-transfer effects, observational challenges, and the fact that the ion-neutral…
The study of prestellar cores is critical as they set the initial conditions in star formation and determine the final mass of the stellar object. To date, several hypotheses are describing their gravitational collapse. We perform detailed…
Stars like our Sun form in self-gravitating dense and cold structures within interstellar clouds, called pre-stellar cores. Although much is known about the physical structure of dense clouds just before and soon after the switch-on of a…
Context. Observations of $\rm ^{14}N/^{15}N$ in the interstellar medium are becoming more frequent thanks to the increased telescope capabilities. However, interpreting these data is still puzzling. In particular, measurements of $\rm…
In previous studies we identified two classes of starless cores, thermally subcritical and supercritical, distinguished by different dynamical behavior and internal structure. Here we study the evolution of the dynamically-unstable,…
The formation and earliest stages of protoplanetary discs remain poorly constrained by observations. ALMA will soon revolutionise this field. Therefore, it is important to provide predictions which will be valuable for the interpretation of…
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…
Prior to star formation, pre-stellar cores accumulate matter towards the centre. As a consequence, their central density increases while the temperature decreases. Understanding the evolution of the chemistry and physics in this early phase…
Context. The gas and ice-grain chemistry of the pre-stellar core L1544 has been the subject of several observations and modelling studies conducted in the past years. The chemical composition of the ice mantles reflects the environmental…
We study the non-axisymmetric evolution of magnetized clouds, using a 2D MHD code based on the physically motivated thin-disk approximation. We found that such clouds become unstable to non-axisymmetric perturbations after the supercritical…
In this study we investigate the formation and properties of prestellar and protostellar cores using hydrodynamic, self-gravitating Adaptive Mesh Refinement simulations, comparing the cases where turbulence is continually driven and where…
We have mapped linearly polarized dust emission from the prestellar cores L1498 and L1517B with the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) using the Submillimetre Common User Bolometer Array (SCUBA) and its polarimeter SCUBAPOL at a…
Dynamical collapses of magnetized molecular cloud cores are studied with magnetohydrodynamical simulations from the run-away collapse phase to the accretion phase. In the run-away collapse phase, a disk threaded by magnetic field lines is…
In dense and cold molecular clouds dust grains are surrounded by thick icy mantles. It is however not clear if dust growth and coagulation take place before the switch-on of a protostar. This is an important issue, as the presence of large…
Water is a crucial molecule in molecular astrophysics as it controls much of the gas/grain chemistry, including the formation and evolution of more complex organic molecules in ices. Pre-stellar cores provide the original reservoir of…