The Effect of Magnetic Fields and Ambipolar Diffusion on Core Mass Functions

TL;DR

This study uses linear analysis and Monte Carlo simulations to explore how magnetic fields and ambipolar diffusion influence the shape of core mass functions in star-forming clouds, highlighting the importance of physical conditions and statistical limitations.

Contribution

It introduces a method combining linear analysis with Monte Carlo simulations to model how magnetic effects shape the core mass function in interstellar clouds.

Findings

Magnetic fields broaden the core mass function and create a high-mass tail.

Ambipolar diffusion truncates the high-mass tail of the core mass function.

Statistical limitations significantly affect the observed high-mass slope.

Abstract

Linear analysis of the formation of protostellar cores in planar magnetic interstellar clouds yields information about length scales involved in star formation. Combining these length scales with various distributions of other environmental variables, (i.e., column density and mass-to-flux ratio) and applying Monte Carlo methods allow us to produce synthetic core mass functions (CMFs) for different environmental conditions. Our analysis shows that the shape of the CMF is directly dependent on the physical conditions of the cloud. Specifically, magnetic fields act to broaden the mass function and develop a high-mass tail while ambipolar diffusion will truncate this high-mass tail. In addition, we analyze the effect of small number statistics on the shape and high-mass slope of the synthetic CMFs. We find that observed core mass functions are severely statistically limited, which has a profound effect on the derived slope for the high-mass tail.