English

Accretion and Diffusion Timescales in Sheets and Filaments

Astrophysics of Galaxies 2015-06-19 v1

Abstract

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 timescales at least an order of magnitude shorter than ambipolar and/or turbulent diffusion timescales. Thus, ambipolar or turbulent diffusion -- while present -- is unlikely to control the formation of cores and stars.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1406.2191,
  title  = {Accretion and Diffusion Timescales in Sheets and Filaments},
  author = {Fabian Heitsch and Lee Hartmann},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1406.2191},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

12 pages, 6 figures, accepted by MNRAS

R2 v1 2026-06-22T04:34:02.631Z