Related papers: Consistency of Ambipolar Diffusion Models with Inf…
Pre-stellar cores represent the initial conditions in the process of star and planet formation. Their low temperatures ($<$10 K) allow the formation of thick icy dust mantles, which will be partially preserved in the future protoplanetary…
We have investigated the evolution and distribution of molecules in collapsing prestellar cores via numerical chemical models, adopting the Larson-Penston solution and its delayed analogues to study collapse. Molecular abundances and…
Either bulk rotation or local turbulence is widely invoked to drive fragmentation in collapsing cores so as to produce multiple star systems. Even when the two mechanisms predict different manners in which the stellar spins and orbits are…
The current study was developed to provide a database of relatively simple numerical simulations of protostellar collapse, as a template library for observations of cores and very young protostars, and for researchers who wish to test their…
Various spectral emission lines from star-forming molecular cloud core L1517B manifest red asymmetric double-peaked profiles with stronger red peaks and weaker blue peaks, in contrast to the oft-observed blue-skewed molecular spectral line…
We investigate the formation of circumstellar disks and outflows subsequent to the collapse of molecular cloud cores with the magnetic field and turbulence. Numerical simulations are performed by using an adaptive mesh refinement to follow…
Ambipolar diffusion can cause a velocity drift between ions and neutrals. This is one of the non-ideal MHD effects proposed to enable the formation of Keplerian disks with sizes of tens of au. To observationally study ambipolar diffusion in…
We present molecular line observations of L1251B, a small group of pre- and protostellar objects, and its immediate environment in the dense C18O core L1251E. These data are complementary to near-infrared, submillimeter and millimeter…
The first hydrostatic core, the first quasi-hydrostatic object formed during the star formation process, is still the observational missing link between the prestellar and protostellar phases, mainly due to its short lifetime. Although we…
Starless cores represent the initial stage of evolution toward (proto)star formation, and a subset of them, known as prestellar cores, with high density (~ 10^6 cm^-3 or higher) and being centrally concentrated are expected to be embryos of…
Observations of dark cloud cores have been carried out in the mid-infrared using ISOCAM and in the far-infrared using ISOPHOT, both aboard the Infrared Space Observatory. The cores are in most cases detected in emission at 200 and 170…
Pre-stellar cores represent the earliest stage of the star- and planet-formation process. By characterizing the physical and chemical structure of these cores we can establish the initial conditions for star and planet formation and…
We present results of new three-dimensional (3D) general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of rapidly rotating strongly magnetized core collapse. These simulations are the first of their kind and include a microphysical…
We have begun a systematic numerical study of the nonlinear growth of nonaxisymmetric perturbations during the ambipolar diffusion-driven evolution of initially magnetically subcritical molecular clouds, with an eye on the formation of…
Sun-like stars form from the contraction of cold and dense interstellar clouds. How the collapse proceeds and what are the main physical processes driving it, however, is still under debate and a final consensus on the timescale of the…
We present the results of chemical modeling of complex organic molecules (COMs) under conditions typical for prestellar cores. We utilize an advanced gas-grain astrochemical model with updated gas-phase chemistry, with a multilayer approach…
Prestellar cores exhibit a strong chemical differentiation, which is mainly caused by the freeze-out of molecules onto the grain surfaces. Understanding this chemical structure is important, because molecular lines are often used as probes…
Prestellar cores represent the initial conditions of star formation, but heavy molecules such as CO are strongly depleted in their cold, dense interiors, limiting the ability to probe core centers. Deuterated molecular ions therefore emerge…
Understanding in which chemical forms phosphorus exists in star- and planet-forming regions and how phosphorus is delivered to planets are of great interest from the viewpoint of the origin of life on Earth. Phosphine (PH3) is thought to be…
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…