GRAVITATIONAL COLLAPSE AND FRAGMENTATION OF MOLECULAR CLOUD CORES

2001 ◽  
Vol 10 (02) ◽  
pp. 115-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
LEONARDO DI G. SIGALOTTI ◽  
JAIME KLAPP
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Binary Stars ◽  
Molecular Cloud ◽  
Main Sequence ◽  
Numerical Models ◽  
Present Theory ◽  
Main Sequence Stars ◽  
Consistent Manner ◽  
Cloud Cores ◽  
Observational Knowledge

The detected multiplicity of main-sequence and pre-main-sequence stars along with the emerging evidence for binary and multiple protostars, imply that stars may ultimately form by fragmentation of collapsing molecular cloud cores. These discoveries, coupled with recent observational knowledge of the structure of dense cloud cores and of the properties of young binary stars, provide serious constraints to the theory of star formation. Most theoretical progress in the field of star formation is largely based on numerical calculations of the early collapse and fragmentation of protostellar clouds. Although these models have been quite successful at predicting the formation of binary protostars, a direct comparison between theory and observations has not yet been established. The results of recent observations as well as of early and recent analytic and numerical models, on which the present theory of star formation is based, are reviewed here in a self-consistent manner.

scholarly journals Circumstellar Disks and Star Formation

1992 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 377-380
Author(s):  
L. Hartmann ◽  
M. Gomez ◽  
S.J. Kenyon
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Spectral Region ◽  
Main Sequence ◽  
Circumstellar Disks ◽  
Central Star ◽  
Disk Accretion ◽  
Main Sequence Stars ◽  
Excess Emission ◽  
Infrared Spectral ◽  
The Masses

Results from the IRAS satellite showed that many pre-main sequence stars exhibited unexpectedly large fluxes in the infrared spectral region. Several studies have shown that the simplest and most satisfying explanation of this excess emission is that it arises in optically-thick, dusty, circumstellar disks (Rucinski 1985; Adams, Lada, and Shu 1987, 1988; Kenyon and Hartmann 1987; Bertout, Basri, and Bouvier 1988; Basri and Bertout 1989). The masses of these disks are estimated to range between 10-3M⊙ to 1M⊙ (Beckwith et al. 1990; Adams et al. 1990), large enough that disk accretion may have a significant effect on the evolution of the central star. Indeed, Mercer-Smith, Cameron, and Epstein (1984) suggested that stars are essentially completely accreted from disks, rather than formed from quasi-spherical accretion (Stabler 1983, 1988).

scholarly journals Star Formation in Molecular Cloud Cores

1987 ◽  
Vol 115 ◽  
pp. 417-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank H. Shu ◽  
Susana Lizano ◽  
Fred C. Adams
Keyword(s):  
Star Formation ◽  
Molecular Cloud ◽  
Theoretical Models ◽  
High Mass ◽  
Spectral Energy ◽  
Dark Cloud ◽  
T Tauri ◽  
Analogous Process ◽  
Static Contraction ◽  
Cloud Cores

The problem of gravitational collapse and star formation is entirely different when the ratio of the mass of a molecular cloud Mcl to its magnetic flux Φ is high than when it is low. Magnetically-diluted overall collapse of a large dense core and the formation of an OB association or a bound cluster are the likely outcomes in the former case; quasi-static contraction of many small cores and their ultimate collapse to form a T association, in the latter. In our picture, the birth of a T association in a dark cloud like Taurus proceeds by ambipolar diffusion on a time-scale of ∼ 107 years. As magnetic and turbulent support is gradually lost from a small condensing core, it approaches a state resembling a slowly rotating singular isothermal sphere which, when it passes the brink of instability, collapses from “inside-out,” building up a central protostar and nebular disk. The emergent spectral energy distributions of theoretical models in this stage of protostellar evolution resemble closely those of recently found sources with steep spectra in the infrared. The protostellar phase is ended by the reversal of the infall by an intense stellar wind, whose ultimate source of energy derived from the differential rotation of the star. We argue that the initial breakout is likely to occur along the rotational poles, leading to collimated jets and bipolar outflows. The stellar jet eventually widens to sweep out gas in nearly all 4π steradian, revealing at the center a T Tauri star and a remnant nebular disk. We give rough scaling relations which must apply if an analogous process is to succeed for producing high mass stars.

Absolute parameters of three southern eclipsing binaries: DQ Car, BK Ind, and V4396 Sgr

2020 ◽  
Vol 493 (2) ◽  
pp. 2659-2675
Author(s):  
Derya Sürgit ◽  
Ahmet Erdem ◽  
Chris A Engelbrecht ◽  
Fred Marang
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Binary Stars ◽  
Main Sequence ◽  
Interstellar Extinction ◽  
Eclipsing Binaries ◽  
Evolutionary Status ◽  
Distance Modulus ◽  
Main Sequence Stars ◽  
The Masses ◽  
Absolute Parameters

ABSTRACT We present combined photometric and spectroscopic analyses of the three southern eclipsing binary stars: DQ Car, BK Ind, and V4396 Sgr. Radial velocity curves of these three systems were obtained at the South African Astronomical Observatory, and their light curves from the available data bases and surveys were used for the analysis. 75 new times of minima for these three eclipsing binaries were derived, and their ephemerides were updated. Only the O–C diagram of DQ Car indicates a cyclical variation, which was interpreted in terms of the light-time effect due to a third body in the system. Our final models describe these three systems as Algol-like binary stars with detached configurations. The masses and radii were found to be M1 = 1.86(±0.17) M⊙, R1 = 1.63(±0.06) R⊙ and M2 = 1.74(±0.17) M⊙, R2 = 1.52(±0.07) R⊙ for the primary and secondary components of DQ Car; M1 = 1.16(±0.05) M⊙, R1 = 1.33(±0.03) R⊙ and M2 = 0.98(±0.04) M⊙, R2 = 1.00(±0.03) R⊙ for BK Ind; and M1 = 3.14(±0.22) M⊙, R1 = 3.00(±0.09) R⊙ and M2 = 3.13(±0.24) M⊙, R2 = 2.40(±0.08) R⊙ for V4396 Sgr, respectively. The distances to DQ Car, BK Ind, and V4396 Sgr were derived to be 701(±50), 285(±20), and 414(±30) pc from the distance modulus formula, taking into account interstellar extinction. The evolutionary status of these three systems was also studied. It has been found that the components of DQ Car are very young stars at the age of ∼25 Myr and those of BK Ind and V4396 Sgr are evolved main-sequence stars at the ages of ∼2.69 Gyr and ∼204 Myr, respectively.

scholarly journals Eclipsing binary stars as tests of stellar evolutionary models and stellar ages

2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (S258) ◽  
pp. 161-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keivan G. Stassun ◽  
Leslie Hebb ◽  
Mercedes López-Morales ◽  
Andrej Prša
Keyword(s):  
Binary Stars ◽  
Main Sequence ◽  
Magnetic Activity ◽  
Eclipsing Binaries ◽  
Evolutionary Models ◽  
Main Sequence Stars ◽  
Eclipsing Binary ◽  
Eclipsing Binary Stars ◽  
Sequence Components ◽  
Low Mass

AbstractEclipsing binary stars provide highly accurate measurements of the fundamental physical properties of stars. They therefore serve as stringent tests of the predictions of evolutionary models upon which most stellar age determinations are based. Models generally perform very well in predicting coeval ages for eclipsing binaries with main-sequence components more massive than ≈1.2 M⊙; relative ages are good to ~5% or better in this mass regime. Low-mass main-sequence stars (M < 0.8 M⊙) reveal large discrepancies in the model predicted ages, primarily due to magnetic activity in the observed stars that appears to inhibit convection and likely causes the radii to be 10–20% larger than predicted. In mass-radius diagrams these stars thus appear 50–90% older or younger than they really are. Aside from these activity-related effects, low-mass pre–main-sequence stars at ages ~1 Myr can also show non-coevality of ~30% due to star formation effects, however these effects are largely erased after ~10 Myr.

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