The Fate of Discs: Forming Low-mass Objects by Disc Fragmentation
First Author:
Dimitris Stamatellos
Email: D.Stamatellos AT astro.cf.ac.uk
Cardiff University
School of Physics & Astronomy, Cardiff University, 5 The Parade
Cardiff, CF24 3AA, UK
Coauthors:
Whitworth, Anthony, Cardiff University
Abstract
We suggest that stars like the Sun should sometimes form with massive (a few 0.1 Msun), extended (a few hundred AU) discs, and we show by means of radiative hydrodynamic simulations that the outer parts (> 100 AU) of such discs are likely to fragment on a dynamical time-scale, forming low-mass objects: principally brown dwarfs, but also low-mass hydrogen-burning stars and planetary-mass objects. We will present the predictions of this model on the mass distribution of the objects formed, their orbital properties (semi-major axis, eccentricity, orbital plane), and their binary properties, and we will compare these properties with the observed properties of low-mass objects. We will show that the formation of low-mass objects by disc fragmentation explains the brown dwarf desert and the binary properties of low-mass objects. Finally, we shall discuss the possibility of observing such discs with current and future observing facilities.
Link to PDF
