Protostellar Disk Formation Enabled by Removal of Small Dust Grains

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that removing very small dust grains from the standard distribution enhances ambipolar diffusion, weakening magnetic braking, and enabling the formation of rotationally supported disks in magnetized molecular cloud cores.

Contribution

It provides a self-consistent chemical model showing how grain size distribution affects disk formation through non-ideal MHD effects, especially ambipolar diffusion.

Findings

Removing very small grains increases ambipolar diffusivity by 1-2 orders of magnitude.

Enhanced ambipolar diffusion reduces magnetic flux in collapsing regions, facilitating disk formation.

Disks of tens of AU can form, survive, and grow depending on parameters like cosmic-ray ionization and magnetic field strength.

Abstract

It has been shown that a realistic level of magnetization of dense molecular cloud cores can suppress the formation of a rotationally supported disk (RSD) through catastrophic magnetic braking in the axisymmetric ideal MHD limit. In this study, we present conditions for the formation of RSDs through non-ideal MHD effects computed self-consistently from an equilibrium chemical network. We find that removing from the standard MRN distribution the large population of very small grains (VSGs) of ~10 $\AA$ to few 100 $\AA$ that dominate the coupling of the bulk neutral matter to the magnetic field increases the ambipolar diffusivity by ~1--2 orders of magnitude at densities below 10$^{10}$ cm$^{-3}$. The enhanced ambipolar diffusion (AD) in the envelope reduces the amount of magnetic flux dragged by the collapse into the circumstellar disk-forming region. Therefore, magnetic braking is weakened and more angular momentum can be retained. With continuous high angular momentum inflow, RSDs of tens of AU are able to form, survive, and even grow in size, depending on other parameters including cosmic-ray ionization rate, magnetic field strength, and rotation speed. Some disks become self-gravitating and evolve into rings in our 2D (axisymmetric) simulations, which have the potential to fragment into (close) multiple systems in 3D. We conclude that disk formation in magnetized cores is highly sensitive to chemistry, especially to grain sizes. A moderate grain coagulation/growth to remove the large population of VSGs, either in the prestellar phase or during free-fall collapse, can greatly promote AD and help formation of tens of AU RSDs.