A numerical model for the formation and long-term evolution of protostars and protostellar disks

Abstract

We present a physical and numerical model for studying the formation and evolution of protostellar objects with solar and sub-solar masses. The model covers several evolutionary phases of these objects starting from the gravitational collapse of an initially unstable pre-stellar cloud, proceeding through the formation and collapse of the first hydrostatic core, and ending with the complete dissipation of the initial cloud and formation of a protostar and protostellar disk. The model is described by a system of MHD equations that includes Ohmic dissipation and ambipolar diffusion, and also a scheme for calculating the thermal and ionization structure of the cloud. We employ the multicomponent approach for computing the thermal structure of collapsing protostellar cloud, in which the dust and gas temperatures are treated separately, allowing us to accurately describe the initial stages of the cloud’s gravitational contraction and collapse. We present the first results showing the structure of an initially quasi-equilibrium protostellar cloud during the first stages of gravitational collapse and subsequent evolution.