Magnetic braking of an aligned rotator during star formation - an exact, time-dependent solution
Abstract
The magnetic braking of a disk cloud with angular momentum and initial magnetic field aligned with the axis of symmetry is discussed, and initial conditions with and without a discontinuity in angular velocity across the disk surfaces are studied. The loss of excess angular momentum by the cloud as a whole is found to be insensitive to the initial conditions and can be accurately represented by the rigid rotator model if the ratio of cloud density to the density of the external medium is not close to unity. It is also shown that, unlike the perpendicular rotator case, the efficiency of magnetic braking is independent of the stage of contraction.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- May 1980
- DOI:
- 10.1086/157936
- Bibcode:
- 1980ApJ...237..877M
- Keywords:
-
- Interstellar Gas;
- Interstellar Magnetic Fields;
- Magnetic Effects;
- Magnetohydrodynamics;
- Rotating Plasmas;
- Star Formation;
- Stellar Rotation;
- Angular Velocity;
- Boundary Value Problems;
- Laplace Transformation;
- Rotating Disks;
- Time Dependence;
- Astrophysics