Turbulence-induced disc formation in strongly magnetized cloud cores

Abstract

We present collapse simulations of strongly magnetized, turbulent molecular cloud cores with masses ranging from 2.6 to 1000M⊙ in order to study the influence of the initial conditions on the turbulence-induced disc formation mechanism proposed recently by Seifried et al. We find that Keplerian discs are formed in all cases independently of the core mass, the strength of turbulence or the presence of global rotation. The discs appear within a fewkyr after the formation of the protostar, are 50-150 au in size, and have masses between 0.05 and a few 0.1M⊙. During the formation of the discs the mass-to-flux ratio stays well below the critical value of 10 for Keplerian disc formation. Hence, flux-loss alone cannot explain the formation of Keplerian discs. The formation of rotationally supported discs at such early phases is rather due to the disordered magnetic field structure and due to turbulent motions in the surroundings of the discs, two effects lowering the classical magnetic braking efficiency. Binary systems occurring in the discs are mainly formed via the disc capturing mechanism rather than via disc fragmentation, which is largely suppressed by the presence of magnetic fields. © 2013 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.