Protostars and Planets VI, Heidelberg, July 15-20, 2013

Poster 1S046

Ambipolar Diffusion in the Formation of Prestellar Cores

Chen, Che-Yu (University of Maryland)
Ostriker, Eve (Princeton University)

Abstract:
We present preliminary results of a numerical survey of core formation in turbulent, magnetized clouds with ambipolar diffusion (AD). We find that cores with high mass-to-flux ratios can only be formed with a strong AD (low ionization fraction n_i/n_n). However, core masses and sizes are similar regardless of the presence or absence of magnetic fields, and the level of ionization. This indicates that anisotropic concentration is important during core formation in strongly magnetized environments.

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