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Magnetic Braking and Angular Momenta of Protostars
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 August 2017
Abstract
A contracting, typical, isothermal interstellar cloud or fragment, magnetically linked to the surrounding medium, loses angular momentum so efficiently that it remains in nearly synchronous galactocentric orbit as long as the field is frozen in the matter. At a high enough density ndec, the field decouples from the matter due to ambipolar diffusion. Thereafter angular momentum is essentially conserved and, consequently, there is a one-to-one correspondence between ndec and the angular momenta of binary and single stars that can ultimately form. Although the calculated rotational velocities (typically, 100 km/sec) are not yet refined enough to account for peculiarities among different spectral classes which may be due to phenomena following protostar formation, they are encouragingly consistent with observations.
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- V. Stellar Winds and Spindown in Late — Type Stars
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- Copyright © Reidel 1983