Embedded disks around low-mass protostars

The time evolution of protostellar disks in the embedded phase of star formation (EPSF) is reviewed based on numerical hydrodynamics simulations of the gravitational collapse of two cloud cores with distinct initial masses. Special emphasis is given to disk, stellar, and envelope masses and also mass accretion rates onto the star. It is shown that accretion is highly variable in the EPSF, in agreement with recent theoretical and observational expectations. Protostellar disks quickly accumulate mass upon formation and may reach a sizeable fraction of the envelope mass (∼ 35%) by the end of the Class 0 phase. Systems with disk-to-star mass ratio ξ ≈ 0.5 are common but systems with ξ _ 1.0 are rare because the latter quickly evolve into binary or multiple systems. Embedded disks are characterized by radial pulsations, the amplitude of which increases with growing core mass.