Oral Presentation

Formation of Magnetized Prestellar Cores in Turbulent Clouds

Author(s): Che-Yu Chen (University of Virginia) & Eve C. Ostriker (Princeton University)

Presenter: Che-Yu Chen (University of Virginia)

We showed that in typical molecular cloud environments, the turbulence-compressed regions are strongly-magnetized sheet-like layers, within which dense filaments and embedded self-gravitating cores form via gathering material along the magnetic field lines. From our simulations, we identified hundreds of self-gravitating cores with masses, sizes, mass-to-magnetic flux ratios, and specific angular momenta comparable to observations. We also quantified how core properties depend on the pre-shock inflow velocity and upstream magnetic field strength. More importantly, our studies suggest that cores acquire angular momenta from small-scale turbulence, which is independent in direction from the local magnetic field. As a result, the core's rotational axis would be poorly aligned with its mean magnetic field, presumably enabling the formation of protostellar disks by reducing the magnetic braking efficiency.