The Effects of Large-Scale Magnetic Fields on Disk Formation and Evolution

Arieh Königl, Raquel Salmeron

Published 2010-04-12Version 1

This is a draft chapter for a book, entitled Physical Processes in Circumstellar Disks around Young Stars, which is scheduled for publication by the University of Chicago Press as one of its Theoretical Astrophysics Series volumes. Sect. 1 presents the motivation for considering the effects of a large-scale, ordered magnetic field on the formation and evolution of protostellar disks. Sect. 2 outlines the physical principles that underlie the magnetohydrodynamics of disks that are threaded by such a field. Sect. 3 discusses the formation and early evolution of disks that result from the collapse of a rotating molecular cloud core that is coupled to the insterstellar magnetic field. Sect. 4 reviews the observational evidence for the disk--wind connection and describes the structure of magnetically accelerated disk outflows, focusing on centrifugally driven winds; it then goes on to discuss the equilibrium and stability properties of weakly ionized protostellar accretion disks in which the transport of angular momentum is dominated by a wind of this type. Sect. 5 considers the coupling between the central protostar and the surrounding disk through the protostellar magnetic field, covering, in turn, the phenomenology, basic concepts, and results of numerical simulations. The chapter is summarized in Sect. 6, which also contains a discussion of future research directions.