Centrifugal Barrier and Super-Keplerian Rotation in Protostellar Disk Formation

TL;DR

This study uses hydrodynamic simulations to investigate the formation of protostellar disks, challenging the traditional concept of the centrifugal barrier by showing super-Keplerian rotation can occur without envelope deceleration.

Contribution

The paper demonstrates through simulations that super-Keplerian regions can form in protostellar disks due to angular momentum transport, not just centrifugal deceleration, revising the classic centrifugal barrier model.

Findings

Super-Keplerian regions can exist with high viscosity.

Envelope material is not decelerated solely by centrifugal force.

Classic centrifugal barrier concept is not supported by simulations.

Abstract

With the advent of ALMA, it is now possible to observationally constrain how disks form around deeply embedded protostars. In particular, the recent ALMA C3H2 line observations of the nearby protostar L1527 have been interpreted as evidence for the so-called "centrifugal barrier," where the protostellar envelope infall is gradually decelerated to a stop by the centrifugal force in a region of super-Keplerian rotation. To test the concept of centrifugal barrier, which was originally based on angular momentum conserving-collapse of a rotating test particle around a fixed point mass, we carry out simple axisymmetric hydrodynamic simulations of protostellar disk formation including a minimum set of ingredients: self-gravity, rotation, and a prescribed viscosity that enables the disk to accrete. We find that a super-Keplerian region can indeed exist when the viscosity is relatively large but, unlike the classic picture of centrifugal barrier, the infalling envelope material is not decelerated solely by the centrifugal force. The region has more specific angular momentum than its surrounding envelope material, which points to an origin in outward angular momentum transport in the disk (subject to the constraint of disk expansion by the infalling envelope), rather than the spin-up of the envelope material envisioned in the classic picture as it falls closer to the center in order to conserve angular momentum. For smaller viscosities, the super-Keplerian rotation is weaker or non-existing. We conclude that, despite the existence of super-Keplerian rotation in some parameter regime, the classic picture of centrifugal barrier is not supported by our simulations.