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Collapse, Equilibrium, and Fragmentation of Rotating, Adiabatic Clouds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

A. P. Boss*
Affiliation:
NASA-Ames Research Center Moffett Field, California 94035 U.S.A.

Abstract

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Numerical calculations of the collapse of adiabatic clouds from uniform density and rotation initial conditions show that when restricted to axisymmetry, the clouds form either near-equilibrium spheroids or rings. Rings form in the collapse of low thermal energy clouds and have β = T/|w|≳ 0.43. When the axisymmetric constraint is removed and an initial m=2 density variation is introduced, clouds either collapse to form near-equilibrium ellipsoids or else fragment into binary systems through a bar phase. Ellipsoids form in the collapse of high thermal energy clouds and have β ≲ 0.27. The results are consistent with the critical values of β for instabilities in Maclaurin spheroids, and suggest that protostellar clouds may undergo a dynamic fragmentation in the nonisothermal collapse regime.

Type
I. ID, 2D, and 3D Collapse of Interstellar Clouds
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1980

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