The impact of non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics on binary star formation
Date
04/2017Keywords
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Abstract
We investigate the effect of non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) on the formation of binary stars using a suite of three-dimensional smoothed particle magnetohydrodynamics simulations of the gravitational collapse of 1 M⊙, rotating, perturbed molecular-cloud cores. Alongside the role of Ohmic resistivity, ambipolar diffusion and the Hall effect, we also examine the effects of magnetic field strength, orientation and amplitude of the density perturbation. When modelling sub-critical cores, ideal MHD models do not collapse whereas non-ideal MHD models collapse to form single protostars. In supercritical ideal MHD models, increasing the magnetic field strength or decreasing the initial-density perturbation amplitude decreases the initial binary separation. Strong magnetic fields initially perpendicular to the rotation axis suppress the formation of binaries and yield discs with magnetic fields ∼10 times stronger than if the magnetic field was initially aligned with the rotation axis. When non-ideal MHD is included, the resulting discs are larger and more massive, and the binary forms on a wider orbit. Small differences in the supercritical cores caused by non-ideal MHD effects are amplified by the binary interaction near periastron. Overall, the non-ideal effects have only a small impact on binary formation and early evolution, with the initial conditions playing the dominant role.
Citation
Wurster , J , Price , D J & Bate , M R 2017 , ' The impact of non-ideal magnetohydrodynamics on binary star formation ' , Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , vol. 466 , no. 2 , pp. 1788-1804 . https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw3181
Publication
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0035-8711Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2016 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the final published version of the work, which was originally published at https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw3181
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