Modeling disks and magnetic outflows around a forming massive star: I. Investigating the two layer-structure of the accretion disk

TL;DR

This study uses 30 resistive magnetohydrodynamic simulations to explore the formation and structure of accretion disks around massive protostars, revealing a two-layer disk structure and the influence of initial conditions on disk size.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive parameter study of massive star formation, highlighting the two-layer disk structure and the relative impact of magnetic fields and initial conditions.

Findings

Two-layer disk structure with thermal and magnetic pressure support.

Disk size mainly depends on initial density and rotation, not magnetic field strength.

Magnetic braking affects the inner disk regions significantly.

Abstract

Like their lower mass siblings, massive protostars can be expected to: a) be surrounded by circumstellar disks and b) launch magnetically-driven jets and outflows. The disk formation and global evolution is thereby controlled by advection of angular momentum from large scales, the efficiency of magnetic braking and the resistivity of the medium, and the internal thermal and magnetic pressures of the disk. We perform a series of 30 simulations of a massive star forming from the gravitational collapse of a molecular cloud threaded by an initially-uniform magnetic field, starting from different values for the mass of the cloud, its initial density and rotation profiles, its rotational energy content, the magnetic field strength, and the resistivity of the material. The gas and dust is modeled with the methods of resistive magnetohydrodynamics, also considering radiation transport of thermal emission and self-gravity. After the initial infall phase dominated by the gravitational collapse, an accretion disk is formed, shortly followed by the launching of magnetically-driven outflows. Two layers can be distinguished in the accretion disk: a thin layer, vertically supported by thermal pressure, and a thick layer, vertically supported by magnetic pressure. We observe the effects of magnetic braking in the inner ~50 au of the disk at late times in our fiducial case. The parameter study reveals that the size of the disk is mostly determined by the density and rotation profiles of the initial mass reservoir and not by the magnetic field strength. Magnetic pressure can slightly increase the size of the accretion disk, while magnetic braking is more relevant in the innermost parts of the disk as opposed to the outer disk. From the parameter study, we infer that multiple initial conditions for the onset of gravitational collapse are able to produce a given disk size and protostellar mass.