On the Angular Momentum Problem in Star Formation

We discuss the difficulties of theories of star formation, especially the problems of shedding of angular momentum and of magnetic flux. We then show that in the Reddish–Wickramasinghe grain-cloud theory the collapse of the grain-cloud will for the first 107 year or so proceed ‘spoke-like ’, which means that the grains will, during their collapse, lose angular momentum to the neutral gas component in such a way that they essentially retain their original angular velocity. We show that in this way the grain-cloud may lose at least 99 per cent of its original angular momentum.