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Singular Isothermal Disks. II. Nonaxisymmetric Bifurcations and Equilibria

We review the difficulties of the classical fission and fragmentation hypotheses for the formation of binary and multiple stars. A crucial missing ingredient in previous theoretical studies is the inclusion of dynamically important levels of magnetic fields. As a minimal model for a candidate precursor to the formation of binary and multiple stars, we therefore formulate and solve the problem of the equilibria of isopedically magnetized, singular isothermal disks, without the assumption of axial symmetry. Considerable analytical progress can be made if we restrict our attention to models that are scale-free, i.e., that have surface densities that vary inversely with distance ϖ from the rotation axis of the system. In agreement with earlier analysis by Syer & Tremaine, we find that lopsided (M = 1) configurations exist at any dimensionless rotation rate, including zero. Multiple-lobed (M = 2, 3, 4,…) configurations bifurcate from an underlying axisymmetric sequence at progressively higher dimensionless rates of rotation, but such nonaxisymmetric sequences always terminate in shock waves before they have a chance to fission into M = 2, 3, 4,… separate bodies. On the basis of our experience in this paper and the preceding Paper I, we advance the hypothesis that binary and multiple star formation from smooth (i.e., not highly turbulent) starting states that are supercritical but in unstable mechanical balance requires the rapid (i.e., dynamical) loss of magnetic flux at some stage of the ensuing gravitational collapse.