The effect of external environment on the evolution of protostellar disks

TL;DR

This study uses hydrodynamics simulations to explore how external environments influence the formation and evolution of protostellar disks, revealing diverse disk structures and potential for counterrotating systems.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of external environmental effects on disk evolution, including counterrotation and fragmentation, expanding understanding beyond isolated core models.

Findings

External infall significantly alters disk properties.

Counterrotating infall can produce transient counterrotating disks.

Fragmentation leads to formation of low-mass companions.

Abstract

Using numerical hydrodynamics simulations we studied the gravitational collapse of pre-stellar cores of sub-solar mass embedded into a low-density external environment. Four models with different magnitude and direction of rotation of the external environment with respect to the central core were studied and compared with an isolated model. We found that the infall of matter from the external environment can significantly alter the disk properties as compared to those seen in the isolated model. Depending on the magnitude and direction of rotation of the external environment, a variety of disks can form including compact (<= 200 AU) ones shrinking in size due to infall of external matter with low angular momentum, as well as extended disks forming due to infall of external matter with high angular momentum. The former are usually stable against gravitational fragmentation, while the latter are prone to fragmentation and formation of stellar systems with sub-stellar/very-low-mass companions. In the case of counterrotating external environment, very compact (< 5 AU) and short-lived (<= a few * 10^5 yr) disks can form when infalling material has low angular momentum. The most interesting case is found for the infall of counterrotating external material with high angular momentum, leading to the formation of counterrotating inner and outer disks separated by a deep gap at a few tens AU. The gap migrates inward due to accretion of the inner disk onto the protostar, turns into a central hole, and finally disappears giving way to the outer strongly gravitationally unstable disk. This model may lead to the emergence of a transient stellar system with sub-stellar/very-low-mass components counterrotating with respect to that of the star.