Triggering the Collapse of Self-Gravitating Clouds by Torsional Alfvén Waves

Abstract Magnetohydrodynamic braking mechanisms of rotation are related to the production of copious fluxes of nonlinear torsional Alfvén waves under a variety of conditions in an interstellar medium and within molecular clouds. The present authors noted that these nonlinear torsional Alfvén waves may pinch ambient gas, sometimes leading to the gravitational collapse of gas clouds, and a spin up of the trapped ambient gas during propagation. …