2000/02/09 by Matthew R. Bate, Bate, Matthew R.
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #FOS: Physical sciences #Granular flow and fluidized beds #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0002202
To appear in the proceedings of `Two Decades of Numerical Astrophysics' (Port Douglas, July 5-9, 1999). 20 pages, 14 embedded figures (some reduced in resolution), 3 separate JPEG figures. Paper with all figures embedded available at http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~mbate
arxiv created 2000/02/09 · openalex publication_date 2000/02/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We review recent advances in the study of binary star formation that have been made using the smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) technique. We discuss the importance of ensuring that the Jeans mass is always resolved during a self-gravitating SPH calculation. Even obeying this criterion, we show that it is now possible to perform calculations which follow the collapse of a molecular cloud core all the way to stellar densities. These calculations resolve 7 orders of magnitude in spatial extent and 17 orders of magnitude in density contrast. Finally, we discuss the progress that has been made in understanding the mass-ratio distributions of binary stellar systems by studying the evolution of protobinary systems as they accrete gas from their surrounding envelopes.