Hourglass Magnetic Field from a Survey of Current Density Profiles

TL;DR

This paper explores various radial current density profiles to enhance the analytic hourglass magnetic field model, enabling better interpretation of polarimetry data in prestellar core studies.

Contribution

It introduces a survey of radial current density distributions within the hourglass model, expanding its applicability to different core formation scenarios.

Findings

Demonstrates the impact of vertical to radial scale ratios on magnetic field patterns.

Provides a flexible framework for fitting observed polarimetry measurements.

Shows how different current density profiles affect the hourglass magnetic field shape.

Abstract

Modelling the magnetic field in prestellar cores can serve as a useful tool for studying the initial conditions of star formation. The analytic hourglass model of Ewertowski and Basu (2013) provides a means to fit observed polarimetry measurements and extract useful information. The original model does not specify any radial distribution of the electric current density. Here, we perform a survey of possible centrally-peaked radial distributions of the current density, and numerically derive the full hourglass patterns. Since the vertical distribution is also specified in the original model, we can study the effect of different ratios of vertical to radial scale length on the overall hourglass pattern. Different values of this ratio may correspond to different formation scenarios for prestellar cores. We demonstrate the flexibility of our model and how it can be applied to a variety of magnetic field patterns.