Increasing mass-to-flux ratio from the dense core to the protostellar envelope around the Class 0 protostar HH 211

TL;DR

This study investigates how magnetic flux and the mass-to-flux ratio evolve from large to small scales in the Class 0 protostar HH 211, providing insights into magnetic field decoupling and ambipolar diffusion during early star formation.

Contribution

We present observational evidence of increasing magnetic field strength and mass-to-flux ratio from 0.1 pc to 600 au scales, supporting efficient ambipolar diffusion in protostellar envelopes.

Findings

Magnetic field strength increases from 40-107 μG to 0.3-1.2 mG.

Mass-to-flux ratio increases from 1.2-3.7 to 9.1-32.3.

Results support the role of ambipolar diffusion in disk formation.

Abstract

To study transportation of magnetic flux from large to small scales in protostellar sources, we analyzed the Nobeyama 45-m N2H+ (1-0), JCMT 850 um polarization, and ALMA C18O (2-1) and 1.3 mm and 0.8 mm (polarized) continuum data of the Class 0 protostar HH 211. The magnetic field strength in the dense core on a 0.1 pc scale was estimated with the single-dish line and polarization data using the Davis-Chandrasekhar-Fermi method, and that in the protostellar envelope on a 600 au scale was estimated from the force balance between the gravity and magnetic field tension by analyzing the gas kinematics and magnetic field structures with the ALMA data. Our analysis suggests that from 0.1 pc to 600 au scales, the magnetic field strength increases from 40-107 uG to 0.3-1.2 mG with a scaling relation between the magnetic field strength and density of $B \propto \rho^{0.36\pm0.08}$, and the mass-to-flux ratio increases from 1.2-3.7 to 9.1-32.3. The increase in the mass-to-flux ratio could suggest that the magnetic field is partially decoupled from the neutral matter between 0.1 pc and 600 au scales, and hint at efficient ambipolar diffusion in the infalling protostellar envelope in HH 211, which is the dominant non-ideal magnetohydrodynamic effect considering the density on these scales. Thus, our results could support the scenario of efficient ambipolar diffusion enabling the formation of the 20 au Keplerian disk in HH 211.