Diffusion of magnetic field and removal of magnetic flux from clouds via turbulent reconnection

TL;DR

This paper investigates how turbulent magnetic reconnection facilitates magnetic flux removal from astrophysical clouds, impacting star formation by enabling magnetic field diffusion in turbulent, gravitational environments.

Contribution

It demonstrates through 3D simulations that turbulent reconnection leads to magnetic flux-to-mass ratio decrease in gravitationally collapsing clouds, applicable to various stages of star formation.

Findings

Magnetic flux-to-mass ratio decreases with increasing density.

Turbulent reconnection enables magnetic flux removal in collapsing clouds.

Magnetic and mass segregation supports relaxation to minimal energy states.

Abstract

The diffusion of astrophysical magnetic fields in conducting fluids in the presence of turbulence depends on whether magnetic fields can change their topology via reconnection in highly conducting media. Recent progress in understanding fast magnetic reconnection in the presence of turbulence is reassuring that the magnetic field behavior in computer simulations and turbulent astrophysical environments is similar, as far as magnetic reconnection is concerned. Our studies of magnetic field diffusion in turbulent medium reveal interesting new phenomena. In the presence of gravity and turbulence, our 3D simulations show the decrease of the magnetic flux-to-mass ratio as the gaseous density at the center of the gravitational potential increases. We observe this effect both in the situations when we start with equilibrium distributions of gas and magnetic field and when we follow the evolution of collapsing dynamically unstable configurations. Thus the process of turbulent magnetic field removal should be applicable both to quasi-static subcritical molecular clouds and cores and violently collapsing supercritical entities. The increase of the gravitational potential as well as the magnetization of the gas increases the segregation of the mass and magnetic flux in the saturated final state of the simulations, supporting the notion that the reconnection-enabled diffusivity relaxes the magnetic field + gas system in the gravitational field to its minimal energy state. This effect is expected to play an important role in star formation, from its initial stages of concentrating interstellar gas to the final stages of the accretion to the forming protostar.