| Stars form when a rotating cloud of gas and dust collapses under the influence of its own gravity. Modern studies of the collapse and fragmentation of rotating protostellar clouds suggest a wide variety of outcomes, depending on the assumed initial conditions. The post-collapse objects are subject to dynamic instabilities which may produce significant mass and angular momentum transport or, if violent enough, could lead to the breakup of the original object. I have considered the isentropic equilibrium states that might form from the collapse of uniformly rotating spherical clouds. By varying the central concentration of the assumed initial cloud, I obtain equilibrium states distinguished primarily by their different specific angular momentum distributions. Using a new code to generate the axisymmetric equilibrium states and an improved adiabatic 3D hydrodynamics code to evolve them, I have investigated the onset and nature of global dynamic instabilities in these objects.; The objects corresponding to uniform initial conditions are unstable to barlike distortions at high rotation rates. These instabilities are vigorous and lead to violent ejection of mass and angular momentum. In contrast, the rapidly rotating equilibrium objects that correspond to highly centrally condensed initial clouds are subject to low-order spiral instabilities. In extremely flattened models, one-armed spirals dominate all other disturbances but do not lead to fragmentation. Significant amounts of angular momentum can be transported on very short time scales; in the most extreme case, 30% of the total angular momentum is moved from the central regions outward in about half a year. Even when the instabilities do not lead to transport or ejection of material, the original object can be significantly restructured, leading to flaring and surface distortions at large radii. The central concentration of the assumed initial cloud appears to be a good predictor of the dynamic instabilities which occur in the post-collapse states encountered during the process of star formation. |
