The Origins of Protostellar Core Angular Momenta

Abstract

We present the results of a suite of numerical simulations designed to explore the origin of the angular momenta of protostellar cores. Using the hydrodynamic grid code \emph{Athena} with a sink implementation, we follow the formation of protostellar cores and protostars (sinks) from the subvirial collapse of molecular clouds on larger scales to investigate the range and relative distribution of core properties. We find that the core angular momenta are relatively unaffected by large-scale rotation of the parent cloud; instead, we infer that angular momenta are mainly imparted by torques between neighboring mass concentrations and exhibit a log-normal distribution. Our current simulation results are limited to size scales $\sim 0.05$~pc ($\sim 10^4\mathrm{AU}$), but serve as first steps toward the ultimate goal of providing initial conditions for higher-resolution studies of core collapse to form protoplanetary disks.

12 pages, 9 figures, accepted to ApJ

References in corpus (11)

• Athena: A New Code for Astrophysical MHD
• On the diversity and statistical properties of protostellar discs
• A Three-Dimensional View of Turbulence: Constraints on Turbulent Motions in the HD 163296 Protoplanetary Disk using DCO${}^{+}$
• Towards a more realistic sink particle algorithm for the RAMSES code
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• Driven and Decaying Turbulence Simulations of Low-Mass Star Formation: From Clumps to Cores to Protostars
• Spin alignment of stars in old open clusters
• Alignment Between Protostellar Outflows and Filamentary Structure
• Are protoplanetary disks born with vortices? -- Rossby wave instability driven by protostellar infall
• How do T Tauri stars accrete
• Kinematics and Structure of Star-forming Regions: Insights from Cold Collapse Models

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• Anisotropic Infall and Substructure formation in Embedded Disks
• Rotating filament in Orion B: Do cores inherit their angular momentum from their parent filament?
• Mergers of Equal-Mass Binaries with Compact Object Companions from Mass Transfer in Triple Star Systems
• Alignment of dense molecular core morphology and velocity gradients with ambient magnetic fields
• Collapsing Molecular Clouds with Tracer Particles: Part I, What Collapses?
• Infall and Disk Processes - the Message from Meteorites
• Touching the Stars: Using High-Resolution 3D Printing to Visualize Stellar Nurseries