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| EPoS Contribution |
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Variable Protostellar Mass Accretion Rates in Cloud Cores
Yang Gao SYSU, Zhuhai, CN | |
| Spherical hydrodynamic models with a polytropic equation of state (EoS) for forming protostars are revisited in order to investigate the so-called luminosity conundrum highlighted by observations. For a molecular cloud (MC) core with such an EoS with polytropic index γ > 1, the central mass accretion rate (MAR) decreases with increasing time as a protostar emerges, offering a sensible solution to this luminosity problem. As the MAR decreases, the protostellar luminosity also decreases, meaning that it is invalid to infer the star formation time from the currently observed luminosity using an isothermal model. Furthermore, observations of radial density profiles and the radio continua of numerous MC cores evolving towards protostars also suggest that polytropic dynamic spheres of γ > 1 should be used in physical models. | |
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| Caption: Time evolution of protostellar mass accretion rate, mass and luminosity for cores with polytropic EoS with different polytripic indices and corresponding fittings to the luminosity function in the c2d survey. | |
| Collaborators: Y.-Q. Lou, THU, CN |
Key publication
Suggested Session: Cores |