Classification of the Circumstellar Disk Evolution During the Main Accretion Phase

TL;DR

This study uses hydrodynamical simulations to classify the early evolution of protostar and circumstellar disks into four modes, revealing that most protostars have massive disks that could facilitate gas-giant formation.

Contribution

The paper introduces a classification scheme for protostar-disk evolution modes based on initial cloud parameters, supported by 17 simulation models covering key evolutionary stages.

Findings

Most protostars have massive disks during the main accretion phase.

Disk fragmentation occurs before or after protostar formation depending on initial conditions.

Massive disks may promote gas-giant formation via gravitational instability.

Abstract

We have carried out hydro-dynamical simulations to investigate the formation and evolution of protostar and circumstellar disks from the prestellar cloud. As the initial state, we adopt the molecular cloud core with two non-dimensional parameters representing the thermal and rotational energies. With these parameters, we make 17 models and calculate the cloud evolution ~ 10^4 years after the protostar formation. We find that early evolution of the star-disk system can be qualitatively classified into four modes: the massive disk, early fragmentation, late fragmentation, and protostar dominant modes. In the 'massive disk mode' to which the majority of models belong, the disk mass is greater than the protostellar mass for over 10^4 years and no fragmentation occurs in the circumstellar disk. The collapsing cloud shows fragmentation before the protostar formation in the 'early fragmentation mode'. The circumstellar disk shows fragmentation after the protostar formation in the 'late fragmentation mode', in which the secondary star substantially gains its mass from the circumstellar disk after fragmentation and it has a mass comparable to that of the primary star. The protostellar mass rapidly increases and exceeds the circumstellar disk mass in the 'protostar dominant mode'. This mode appears only when the initial molecular cloud core has a considerably small rotational energy. Comparison of our results with observations indicates that a majority of protostar has a fairly massive disk during the main accretion phase: the circumstellar disk mass is comparable to or more massive than the protostar. It is expected that such a massive disk promotes gas-giant formation by gravitational instability in a subsequent evolution stage.