Zooming in on the formation of protoplanetary disks

TY - JOUR

T1 - Zooming in on the formation of protoplanetary disks

AU - Nordlund, Åke

AU - Haugbølle, Troels

AU - Küffmeier, Michael

AU - Paodoan, Paolo

AU - Vasileiades, Aris

PY - 2013/6

Y1 - 2013/6

N2 - We use the adaptive mesh refinement code RAMSES to model the formation of protoplanetary disks in realistic star formation environments. The resolution scales over up to 29 powers of two (~ 9 orders of magnitude) covering a range from outer scales of 40 pc to inner scales of 0.015 AU. The accretion rate from a 1.5 solar mass envelope peaks near 10-4 M⊙ about 6 kyr after sink particle formation and then decays approximately exponentially, reaching 10-6 M⊙ in 100 kyr. The models suggest universal scalings of physical properties with radius during the main accretion phase, with kinetic and/or magnetic energy in approximate balance with gravitational energy. Efficient accretion is made possible by the braking action of the magnetic field, which nevertheless allows a near-Keplerian disk to grow to a 100 AU size. The magnetic field strength ranges from more than 10 G at 0.1 AU to less than 1 mG at 100 AU, and drives a time dependent bipolar outflow, with a collimated jet and a broader disk wind.

AB - We use the adaptive mesh refinement code RAMSES to model the formation of protoplanetary disks in realistic star formation environments. The resolution scales over up to 29 powers of two (~ 9 orders of magnitude) covering a range from outer scales of 40 pc to inner scales of 0.015 AU. The accretion rate from a 1.5 solar mass envelope peaks near 10-4 M⊙ about 6 kyr after sink particle formation and then decays approximately exponentially, reaching 10-6 M⊙ in 100 kyr. The models suggest universal scalings of physical properties with radius during the main accretion phase, with kinetic and/or magnetic energy in approximate balance with gravitational energy. Efficient accretion is made possible by the braking action of the magnetic field, which nevertheless allows a near-Keplerian disk to grow to a 100 AU size. The magnetic field strength ranges from more than 10 G at 0.1 AU to less than 1 mG at 100 AU, and drives a time dependent bipolar outflow, with a collimated jet and a broader disk wind.

KW - astro-ph.SR

U2 - 10.1017/s1743921313008107

DO - 10.1017/s1743921313008107

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1743-9213

VL - 8

SP - 131

EP - 135

JO - Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union

JF - Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union

IS - 299

ER -