Impact of Magnetic Braking on High-mass Close Binary Formation

TL;DR

This study combines simulations and analytical models to explore how magnetic braking influences the formation of close high-mass binary systems, highlighting the importance of magnetic field strength, configuration, and outflows.

Contribution

It demonstrates that magnetic braking can facilitate close binary formation and identifies the magnetic field orientation and outflows as key factors affecting binary separation.

Findings

Magnetic braking enables the formation of close binaries with <100 au separation.

Unmagnetized clouds tend to form wider binaries >100 au.

Outflows can hinder close binary formation by disrupting accretion.

Abstract

Combining numerical simulations and analytical modeling, we investigate whether close binary systems form by the effect of magnetic braking. Using magnetohydrodynamics simulations, we calculate the cloud evolution with a sink, for which we do not resolve the binary system or binary orbital motion to realize long-term time integration. Then, we analytically estimate the binary separation using the accreted mass and angular momentum obtained from the simulation. In unmagnetized clouds, wide binary systems with separations of >100 au form, in which the binary separation continues to increase during the main accretion phase. In contrast, close binary systems with separations of <100 au can form in magnetized clouds. Since the efficiency of magnetic braking strongly depends on both the strength and configuration of the magnetic field, they also affect the formation conditions of a close binary. In addition, the protostellar outflow has a negative impact on close binary formation, especially when the rotation axis of the prestellar cloud is aligned with the global magnetic field. The outflow interrupts the accretion of gas with small angular momentum, which is expelled from the cloud, while gas with large angular momentum preferentially falls from the side of the outflow onto the binary system and widens the binary separation. This study shows that a cloud with a magnetic field that is not parallel to the rotation axis is a favorable environment for the formation of close binary systems.