Recent Developments in Simulations of Low-mass Star Formation

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances in numerical simulations that reveal detailed processes of low-mass star formation, including fragmentation, disk formation, and magnetic field dynamics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of recent simulation techniques and findings in low-mass star formation, highlighting new insights into core collapse and protostar development.

Findings

Simulation resolution now captures fragmentation and binary formation.

Outflow and jet phenomena are successfully modeled.

Magnetic field dynamics are better understood in star formation.

Abstract

In star forming regions, we can observe different evolutionary stages of various objects and phenomena such as molecular clouds, protostellar jets and outflows, circumstellar disks, and protostars. However, it is difficult to directly observe the star formation process itself, because it is veiled by the dense infalling envelope. Numerical simulations can unveil the star formation process in the collapsing gas cloud. Recently, some studies showed protostar formation from the prestellar core stage, in which both molecular clouds and protostars are resolved with sufficient spatial resolution. These simulations showed fragmentation and binary formation, outflow and jet driving, and circumstellar disk formation in the collapsing gas clouds. In addition, the angular momentum transfer and dissipation process of the magnetic field in the star formation process were investigated. In this paper, I briefly review recent developments in numerical simulations of low-mass star formation.