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Magnetic Braking and Angular Momenta of Protostars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2017

Telemachos Ch. Mouschovias
Telemachos Ch. Mouschovias*
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Departments of Physics and Astronomy

Abstract

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A contracting, typical, isothermal interstellar cloud or fragment, magnetically linked to the surrounding medium, loses angular momentum so efficiently that it remains in nearly synchronous galactocentric orbit as long as the field is frozen in the matter. At a high enough density ndec, the field decouples from the matter due to ambipolar diffusion. Thereafter angular momentum is essentially conserved and, consequently, there is a one-to-one correspondence between ndec and the angular momenta of binary and single stars that can ultimately form. Although the calculated rotational velocities (typically, 100 km/sec) are not yet refined enough to account for peculiarities among different spectral classes which may be due to phenomena following protostar formation, they are encouragingly consistent with observations.

Type
V. Stellar Winds and Spindown in Late — Type Stars
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 102: Solar and Stellar Magnetic Fields: Origins and Coronal Effects , 1983 , pp. 479 - 485
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1983 

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