Collapse and fragmentation of rotating, prolate clouds

Abstract

We present the results of collapse calculations for uniformly rotating, prolate clouds performed using the numerical method: smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH). The clouds considered are isothermal, prolate spheroids with different axial ratios (a/b), and with different values of β, the ratio of the rotational to gravitational energy. Small density perturbations are added to the clouds, and different initial perturbation spectra are studied. All of the clouds considered are strongly unstable to gravitational contraction, and so collapse to form a spindle configuration. Such a linear structure is unstable to fragmentation, so that the clouds break up into a number of subcondensations. The long-term evolution of the system is then determined by the angular momentum possessed by these fragments. It is found that a number of the calculations performed result in the formation of orbitally stable binary systems, composed of two rotationally supported discs in orbit about their common centre of mass. Tidal interactions during closest approach, close three-body interactions and the continued accretion of material with high specific angular momentum are all found to increase the orbital separation during these calculations, ensuring that the systems do not merge at later times. The calculations are therefore relevant to the problem of binary star formation, though the systems produced tend to have large orbital separations and periods. One of the strong points of the models presented, however, is their ability to produce systems with a range of mass ratios and orbital eccentricities, without the explicit inclusion of biases in the initial conditions.