Protostellar formation in rotating interstellar clouds. VII - Opacity and fragmentation

This paper investigates the effect of variations in the Rosseland mean opacity of dust grains on numerical models of three-dimensional protostellar collapse and fragmentation. In particular, it is found that increasing the dust grain opacity by factors of 3 - 4 has little effect upon the gross characteristics of protostellar fragmentation. As a consequence, theoretical quantities such as the estimated minimum protostellar mass of ≈0.01 M_sun; for Population I star formation are insensitive to the precise value of the opacity.