Formation of Planetary-Mass Brown Dwarfs in Magnetic Molecular Clouds

Abstract

Searches for very low mass objects in young star clusters have uncovered evidence for free-floating objects with inferred masses possibly as low as 5 to 15 Jupiter masses (MJup), similar to the masses of several extrasolar planets. We show here that the process which forms single and multiple protostars, namely collapse and fragmentation of molecular clouds, might be able to produce self-gravitating objects with initial masses less than ˜ 1MJup. Models are calculated with a three dimensional, finite differences code which solves the equations of hydrodynamics, gravitation, and radiative transfer in the Eddington and diffusion approximations. Magnetic pressure is added to the gas pressure, magnetic tension is approximated by gravity dilution once collapse is well underway, and ambipolar diffusion is treated approximately as well. Initially oblate clouds fragment into multiple protostar systems containing a small number (of order four) of fragments. If such fragments can be ejected from an unstable quadruple protostar system, prior to gaining significantly more mass, protostellar collapse might then be able to explain the formation of free-floating objects with masses below 13MJup. These objects might then be best termed “sub-brown dwarfs”.