Fragmentation of Filamentary Cloud Permeated by Perpendicular Magnetic Field

TL;DR

This study analyzes how a perpendicular magnetic field influences the stability and fragmentation of filamentary clouds, revealing that magnetic boundary conditions critically affect cloud stability and the scale of fragmentation.

Contribution

It provides a linear stability analysis of filamentary clouds with perpendicular magnetic fields, highlighting the impact of boundary conditions on fragmentation and stability.

Findings

Magnetic fields suppress fragmentation under fixed boundary conditions when plasma beta is below 1.67.

The most unstable wavelength increases with magnetic field strength.

Magnetic forces inhibit compression perpendicular to the magnetic field in low-density regions.

Abstract

We examine the linear stability of an isothermal filamentary cloud permeated by a perpendicular magnetic field. Our model cloud is assumed to be supported by gas pressure against the self-gravity in the unperturbed state. For simplicity, the density distribution is assumed to be symmetric around the axis. Also for simplicity, the initial magnetic field is assumed to be uniform and turbulence is not taken into account. The perturbation equation is formulated to be an eigenvalue problem. The growth rate is obtained as a function of the wavenumber for fragmentation along the axis and the magnetic field strength. The growth rate depends critically on the outer boundary. If the displacement vanishes in the region very far from the cloud axis (fixed boundary), cloud fragmentation is suppressed by a moderate magnetic field, which means the plasma beta is below 1.67 on the cloud axis. If the displacement is constant along the magnetic field in the region very far from the cloud, the cloud is unstable even when the magnetic field is infinitely strong. The cloud is deformed by circulation in the plane perpendicular to the magnetic field. The unstable mode is not likely to induce dynamical collapse, since it is excited even when the whole cloud is magnetically subcritical. For both the boundary conditions the magnetic field increases the wavelength of the most unstable mode. We find that the magnetic force suppresses compression perpendicular to the magnetic field especially in the region of low density.