Fragmentation in a rotating protostar - A comparison of two three-dimensional computer codes

Abstract

The collapse of an isothermal protostellar cloud with pressure, gravity, and rotation included is followed with two independent computer codes. For the initial condition, a nonaxisymmetric perturbation of mode m = 2 and 50% amplitude is introduced into a cloud of 1 solar mass with a mean density of 1.44 x 10 to the -17g/cu cm and a uniform angular velocity of 1.6 x 10 to the -12 rad/sec. The collapse is followed through an increase in density of over four orders of magnitude to the point where a binary protostar forms. The agreement between the results of the two calculations is good.