Loading…
Hourglass magnetic field from a survey of current density profiles
•This paper contains new results on the calculation of hourglass magnetic field structures in star-forming regions.•We perform a survey of possible centrally-peaked distributions of the electric current density.•Different ratios of the vertical to radial scale length of the current density correspon...
Saved in:
Published in: | New astronomy 2022-01, Vol.90, p.101667, Article 101667 |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Citations: | Items that this one cites Items that cite this one |
Online Access: | Get full text |
Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
Summary: | •This paper contains new results on the calculation of hourglass magnetic field structures in star-forming regions.•We perform a survey of possible centrally-peaked distributions of the electric current density.•Different ratios of the vertical to radial scale length of the current density correspond to distinct patterns and possibly different formation scenarios.
Modeling 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. |
---|---|
ISSN: | 1384-1076 1384-1092 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.newast.2021.101667 |